Mission Accomplished
by dragonkid27
Summary: Crime Sorciere is near Magnolia and they decide to stop and visit one of their favorite guilds! What will happen to Fairy Tail when Ultear, Meredy, and Mira team up and play matchmaker? I do not own Fairy Tail. Jellal x Erza.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail

It was a rare day when Jellal Fernandes would allow himself to celebrate something, and a much rarer when Crime Sorciere was in such a mood that they would drink to something, but today was one of those days. They had managed to take down quite a large dark guild and had decided to that after a long run of good work that they could in fact, mostly due to Ultear and Meredy's urgings, take a short, couple days reprieve from their usually intense schedule. It also may have had to do with the fact that they were also so close to Magnolia and that both of the other members had been begging for an excuse to visit Fairy Tail for a while now.

After only a few rounds of drinks Ultear and Meredy were finally forced to put their fearless leader down early because he had next to no alcohol tolerance. Or at least they thought that was the end of it.

She had to admit that she was surprised when she was awoken by the loud rapping on her apartment door. She was slightly disgruntled by the sight of the bright red 2:30 blinking angrily on the face of her alarm clock. She made her way through the apartment and to the door, staring out the peephole to see who on earthland could possibly feel the need to see her at this hour. She was surprised when she realized that her view was obscured by a blue mass and it took her a moment in her weary state to recognize the familiar shade. She felt her heart skip a beat as she pulled the door open to Jellal, who almost fell to the ground because of how heavily he had been leaning on her door. He shifted back so he was resting against the frame of her doorway.

"Hey! Hey Errrzzaa~!" He hiccupped excitedly.

She instantly could smell the remnants of his escapade from the previous portion of the night. He had a slack grin plastered lazily across his face and his eyes were having trouble staying focused on her face. A light flush of pink was painted across his cheeks. He was missing his long coat and breastplate, which made him look slightly out of place. Her annoyance faded slightly and turned in concern. Why of all places was he here? How on earthland had he even gotten to Magnolia? And where was the rest of his guild? And finally, why was he _drunk_ _on her doorstep at 2 in the morning _of all things? She decided that she would have to look after Jellal since he looked like he could barely stand, much less walk.

"What are you doing here?" She asked Jellal curiously. He had been giggling and hiccupping all the while that she had been lost collecting her thoughts.

"I wanted to see you, silly." He slurred, lifting a hand and poking her face, causing him to fall into a fit of giggles again. He began to slip and she quickly stepped forwards and wrapped her arms around him torso in order to keep him from falling. Her knees buckled a bit under the extra weight and, though he lifted his arms up around her in return, he made absolutely no effort to support any of his own weight. Instead he just nuzzled his cheek against hers fondly.

She stumbled back a half step before falling backwards completely under his weight. Some how in his drunken state he managed to keep a hold of her and sweep her back onto her feet using the momentum. _At least now he was standing on his own,_ she thought to herself as she regained her own footing. She closed the door behind them lest someone walk by and see the fugitive standing by her door at this hour because he was certainly in no fit shape to be running from any rune knights.

"You ought to be more careful." Jellal commented as he pulled her in to another hug.

Despite wanting to enjoy the moment, there were some things that Erza had to find out for herself first. She wriggled out of his grasp and took a step back so that she could look him in the eye without having to tilt her head so far back.

"Jellal, why on earthland are you here?" She asked again with an exasperated sigh.

"Because you're here." He answered like it was the most obvious fact in the world. "I needed to see you."

"I've got that, but why do you need to see me at-" she glanced over at the clock, "2:42 in the morning? Why not just come by the guild in the morning and see me?"

His face crumpled up as he stared in to the distance, trying to remember what had possessed him to come at such an early hour instead of during the day like she had suggested. After a few more moments his face lit up as the thought came back to him. "Oh yeah! I have no idea." He replied, grinning back down at her.

"So how did you get here?" She fired.

"Meteor." He replied back, lifting a hand and pointing to his forehead. Now in the light of her room, she could see a nasty bruise forming on the spot that he was indicating. "I think I ran into a tree, but I'm not entirely sure."

"How are you not- Never mind. And why on earthlandland are you drunk?" She snapped.

"Well we beat this really powerful dark guild, but I think Ultear and Meredy really just wanted to celebrate because we've decided to take a couple of days to recuperate in the area before moving on and because we were going to visit Fairy Tail." He explained. "Anyways, so we were celebrating and I had like, two glasses of wine. I swear. Even Meredy calls me a lightweight." He explained frantically, as if Erza might not believe him. "So anyways, I kept asking if I could come see you but they told me no and then told me to go to sleep, but I couldn't. So I waited until they were asleep and then I think I used meteor to get here. I'm not sure about that last part though. That part is really hazy," he mumbled to himself.

She was still quite unsure of how to react to her drunk friend and his quest to come and see her. The fact that he had come to see her of all people stirred something in the pool of her stomach, but she pushed the feeling down. She did not have the energy to deal with such thoughts right now. After a few moments of uncomfortable silence Jellal finally spoke again.

"I should probably get going. I dunno. Sorry for waking you up, I just really needed to see you. I've only got one more question." He asked, turning his head slightly so that he could look at her as he made his way towards the door. Erza nodded for him to continue.

"Do you know where I camped? I can't remember." He asked helplessly.

Erza face palmed. "Oh, Jellal." She groaned in frustration.

"Yeah?" He asked excitedly.

There was no way that she could turn him out now. He couldn't remember how to get back and he still was drunk enough so that he had the attention span of a five year old. If she let him leave now then he would either get lost and be captured by ruin knights or probably even walk up to them and ask them for directions and end up having his whole guild captured. And there was no way that Erza Scarlet was going to let that happen to her friend.

"Follow me." She sighed. He grinned happily and turned away from the door to trot after her. Erza led him through the massive armor-filled apartment, trying to figure out a place that where her guest could sleep.

They eventually ended up wandering into the sitting room before stopping in front of her couch. She looked down at the short piece of furniture and sighed. There was no way that someone as tall as Jellal would be able to fall asleep on that. It wasn't even big enough for her to sleep on. She gave up. He followed her like a baby duck as she led him to her room and sat obediently on the edge of the bed as she shuffled around, pulling out an extra pillow and a blanket. He moved to take the items from her, but she shakes her head in response.

"You're my guest: you take the bed."

"No. You're a girl. You sleep on the bed." He argued back.

"Jellal-" She began in a dangerous tone.

"Erza-" He whined back.

She looked him right in the eye. Though it was clear that he was still far from sober, it was also clear in his eyes that he showed no intention of backing down. Then again, neither did she. She was about to speak again when all of a sudden Jellal's expression changed.

"This bed _is_ big enough for two people." He pointed out. Erza's face flushed slightly at the comment, but Jellal didn't seem to notice. Instead he had opted to pout at her and the longer she looked at his face, the more her resolve began to crumble. It only took a few more seconds before she finally gave in.

"Fine." She sighed tiredly, glancing over at the alarm clock.

3:15.

She was too tired to be dealing with this foolishness right now. Jellal, on the other hand, seemed very pleased that he had won and quickly slipped his boots off before sliding under the covers on one side of the bed. He watched her as she walked around to her side of the bed as if to make sure that she was not tricking him and sleeping on the ground.

She slid into the bed on her side and Jellal finally put his head down on a pillow, satisfied with their situation. Perhaps it was just due to her tired state, but she couldn't help but notice how cute Jellal looked with a goofy smile plastered on his face as he snuggled under the covers. It was interesting to her to see her friend that was usually so serious acting so happy and so carefree. She quickly returned to reality. Her stomach felt nervous at the thought of the two of them sharing the bed, but she pushed it down and reached over to turn out the light.

"Good night Erza." Jellal mumbled into his pillow.

"Good night Jellal." She smiled back softly as she flicked the switch.

When Erza awoke she was not entirely sure if what had happened the previous night was real or not. The only thing that she was sure of at the moment was that she had vastly overslept, bright rays of light peeking out from under the curtains in front of her windows and taunting her. In another couple of moments as she began to wake up more and she suddenly tensed. There was something, or rather someone, who was lying right beside her with an arm thrown lazily across her body and his head snuggled into the crook of her neck. She instantly felt her face heat up and tried to wriggle free from Jellal's grasp, but instead his arm only tightened around her, bringing her closer to him as his nose nuzzled against her neck.

"Erza..." he mumbled into her neck, breath tickling her skin, "hmm... smells nice."

She blushes at this comment and starts to try and free herself from his grasp again. She couldn't think when she was trapped against his warm body and she really needed some air.

"Jellal," she groaned, "I need to get up to go to the guild." She demanded, finally managing to slip from his grasp before rolling over the side of the bed to escape.

"...Erza?"

She saw his relaxed face stiffen as his eyes slowly began to open. Well, at least the old Jellal was back. He sat up and blinked blearily a few times. He first looked down at the bed, as if confused with how he had gotten there, and then looked up at her. His eyes shot open in a flash, almost all traces of sleepiness instantly vanishing and she was pretty sure that he had stopped breathing altogether.

"What? How did I? Where? _What?_"

Erza watched with vague amusement as his face turned bright red and he continued to sputter for a few moments before finally collecting himself enough to make out an actual sentence.

He turned to her with a bewildered look in his eyes. "What happened? How did I get here?" He asked seriously. Despite the look on his face and in his eyes, Erza found it very hard to take him seriously was his hair was still a rumpled mess. She proceeded to explain to him how he had turned up on her doorstep, apparently after using meteor to come see her at some godforsaken hour of the morning and how she had let him stay because she was worried that something would have happened to him. He takes a moment to digest all of the information before he speaks up again, this time a little bit calmer.

"...So what exactly am I like when I'm drunk?"

All of the questions he could have asked, she was not expecting that one. Did he really have _no_ recollection of what had happened?

"I mean, I can never remember what happens and Meredy and Ultear refuse to tell me, but whenever I bring it up they always just laugh. So yeah, I'm just kind of curious." He explained, blushing slightly from embarrassment.

"How do I put this delicately?" She asked herself aloud, watching the look of terror that stuck his face. "You become the emotional equivalent of a five year old." She smirked. His face softened and he let a short chuckle echo from his throat.

"Sorry for waking you up so early in the morning." He apologized, bowing his head. "And for all of the trouble I may caused you."

"It was no problem. Really." She assured him. "Do you want to come down to the guild with me to get some breakfast?"

"I'm feeling much better now, so I should probably return to the rest of my guild before they start to worry to much, but thank you for the offer." He replied, giving her a small smile in return. He slid to the edge of his side of the bed and made a move to stand, but was interrupted by a loud growling noise.

Both he and Erza turned to look down at his stomach, which had just halted him. He stood and turned to look sheepishly back at her.

"We can send a messenger pigeon to Ultear and Meredy to let them know that you're already here and to tell them to just pick you up here since you said that they were planning on stopping by the guild today anyways." Erza suggests to him.

"I guess breakfast couldn't hurt." Jellal relents, smiling in earnest now.

Much to his surprise, Jellal was welcomed warmly down in the guildhall, being bombarded with questions about how he was doing and by requests from Natsu to fight. Erza quickly put an end to the latter, sending the hyper dragon slayer flying across the guild. They went to the bar and ordered food from Mira as well as sent a message to the rest of his guild. Thankfully he could actually remember where they were now. It did not take more than half an hour before Meredy and Ultear arrived. Both of them chastised him for running off before teasing him once they found out that he had run straight to Erza. This caused both the requip mage and the heavenly body mage to blush profusely and sit in awkward silence for a moment. The other two members explain to him that he is always overexcited to go see Erza when he's drunk and pouts when they tell him that he can't. This causes Jellal to blush even deeper as Erza watches on in amusement. Satisfied that their work was done, Ultear and Meredy went to the bar to order themselves some breakfast before spending the day with their other favorite guild.

"Hey Ultear, did you think we did the right thing?" Meredy asked the older woman.

"What do you mean?" Ultear asked, turning her attention away from her breakfast.

"I mean telling Jellal to use meteor before tricking him, knocking him out, and leaving him on Erza's doorstep at who knows what time in the morning?" Meredy clarified.

"Well there was no way that I was going to let that idiot actually use meteor while he was drunk. Not a chance. He would have gotten himself killed." Ultear smirked. "And besides, look at those two," she said, pointing at the figures of Erza and Jellal staring at each other over their own meals. "Tell me they don't look happy."

"So mission accomplished?" The pink-haired girl asked hopefully.

"Mission accomplished."

A/N: So yeah. Apologies, I'm not the best writer. I have the head cannon that when Jellal is drunk he either acts like a child, gets super hyper, and wants to go see Erza (though his despair his guild mates can't let him) or he just starts rambling really fast about all of the things he knows: stars, magic, you name it.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail

"_Hey Ultear, did you think we did the right thing?" Meredy asked the older woman._

"_What do you mean?" Ultear asked, turning her attention away from her breakfast._

"_I mean telling Jellal to use meteor before tricking him, knocking him out, and leaving him on Erza's doorstep at who knows what time in the morning?" Meredy clarified._

"_Well there was no way that I was going to let that idiot actually use meteor while he was drunk. Not a chance. He would have gotten himself killed." Ultear smirked. "And besides, look at those two," she said, pointing at the figures of Erza and Jellal staring at each other over their own meals. "Tell me they don't look happy."_

"_So mission accomplished?" The pink-haired girl asked hopefully._

"_Mission accomplished."_

"So you're responsible for them, huh?"

Ultear and Meredy turned to see Mira watching the couple as well from over the bar.

"I've been trying for ages to think of how to get them together, but you've managed to do it in just one night." Mira sighed. "Still, it'll be a shame when you all have to go."

"Oh, I wouldn't hold Jelly to too high of standards." Ultear sighed. "He loves her more than life itself, but he still doesn't believe that he deserves her. Knowing that idiot he'll probably say some stupid lie by the end of the day and end up trying to put space between them so he can 'protect her'." Ultear said, remembering back to when Jellal had denied Erza back before the Grand Magic Games.

"What only makes it worse is that he's a horrible liar too." Meredy added, turning her attention away from her breakfast. "And he's always lying to himself that he doesn't deserve her."

"Well then it's simple!" Mira exclaimed. "All we have to do is keep him from lying for the rest of the day and get him to only tell the truth to Erza about how he feels!"

"There's no way he'll be able to do that." Ultear said, shaking her head.

"What if I told you there was a way that we could get him to stop lying to both Erza _and himself_ for the rest of the day?" Mira asked mischievously. "And it would keep Erza from lying too."

"What'd you have in mind?" Ultear smirked.

"Hey Erza, Jellal," Ultear greeted as she and Meredy walked over to the table where the knight and the guild master were sitting. "Mira asked if we could bring you these because she's a little bit backed up in the kitchens." The time mage said, placing two cups of coffee in front of the couple. The two sitting both said their thanks and took the drinks. Jellal immediately took a sip of his, whereas Erza emptied a few packets of sugar into hers before she was able to stand the drink.

"So do you three have any plans for today?" Erza asked curiously. It had probably been a while since the fugitives had been into a city as big as Magnolia. She knew that the three were extremely careful, but that didn't stop her from worrying.

"Well, Meredy and I were going to go shopping today. Both of you are welcome to come with us, but I guessing after his last experience that Jellal might want to find something else to do." Ultear commented.

"Sorry, but I am going to have to turn you down on that offer. After the last time I went shopping with you two last time I vowed that I'm never doing that again." Jellal chuckled, shaking his head. Having to carry all of their bags he didn't mind, but listening to their constant bickering over the different colors of a singular item had given him quite a headache. Not to mention his horror when they had tried to shop for him: he simply didn't need anything more than he had. When the other two had insisted on buying him at least one thing he had relented and told them to just pick something for him. He ended up receiving a figurine of Erza (which he secretly kept).

"So _do_ you have any plans for today Jellal?" Ultear asked.

He shrugged and ran a hand through his unruly hair, taking another sip of his coffee before responding.

"No idea. I was figuring that I would just lay low around here for a while." He responded, setting his drained mug back on the table.

"You really need to learn how to have fun, Jell." Meredy sighed.

"Really," Ultear agreed. "It's not going to kill you if you relax for _one_ day."

"Well . . ." He trailed off, sinking into his thoughts.

"I could show you around town."

Three pairs of eyes shot up to look at Erza, who had been silent for a while as she polished off her own cup of coffee.

"Perfect." Ultear smiled.

"Well Jellal? It'll be fun!" Meredy coaxed, poking her friend.

The blue-haired mage looked up from the depths of the cup he had been staring at and his eyes found Erza's. He really didn't deserve to have the pleasure of spending the day with her after all he had done, but she looked so excited . . .

"I guess it couldn't hurt to relax _one_ day." He agreed slowly, sighing in defeat. "I'd be honored to take you up on your offer." He confirmed, a faint smile making its way onto his face as the woman in front of him beamed with happiness.

"It's settled then." Ultear nodded decisively. "We'll meet you back here tonight: Makarov offered to let us stay in some of the extra rooms here so that we'll actually get to sleep in beds." Ultear explained. "Though I guess that you got to sleep in one last night." She smirked, watching as the two mages in front of her blushed again. "Well, Meredy and I should get going if we want to get to all the shops we want to see. See you later! Oh, and please keep him out of too much trouble Erza!" The time mage said, turning to leave.

"Have fun Jellal! You too Erza!" Meredy chirped, quickly turning to follow Ultear from the guildhall and into the bustling city. Jellal and Erza sat at their table, in no rush to be anywhere in particular.

"So what do you want to do today?" Erza asked. Jellal's eye flitted back to hers and he simply shrugged once again.

"I really don't have anything that I need to get done." He said calmly. "I'll be fine, really." He insisted, responding to the pointed look that Erza was giving him. "Really. Please don't let me take away from whatever you had to do today. I'm happy just staying here if you need to go run errands." He explained.

"No you're not." Erza replied, taking charge. "I promised Ultear and Meredy that I'd take you out today, even if it is just for errands." She stated firmly, determined to crush the look of self-loathing from her companion's eyes. "And besides, I asked what _you __**wanted**_ to do today, not what errands you needed to run." She said decisively. "So I'll ask you again, what do you want to do today?"

Jellal was a bit taken aback by her stern tone and sat in shocked silence for a moment, all the while the scarlet-haired knight watching him intently. Now that he thought about it, he realized that it had been a very long time since he had actually thought about what _he _wanted. Whenever they had free time in Crime Sorciere, which was rare to begin with, he would always let Ultear and Meredy pick where they went, simply doing whatever they wanted. With their lifestyle there was certainly some amenities he missed . . .

"I guess there is one thing I can think of that I'd like to do." He mumbled, looking down sheepishly. Erza's eyes lit up as she waited for what him to finish his thought. "I really like reading to learn other types of magic, but it's literally been _years_ since I've had a chance to scour a bookstore for texts. I've checked a few stores in the small towns we've been through, but they never have anything that I'm really looking for. . ." he trailed off, looking back up at Erza.

"Then it's settled!" Erza stated determinedly. "Come on! I know of a great bookstore right next to the best cake place in town!" Erza smiled, jumping to her feet and walking towards the doors of he guild.

Jellal stared dumbly at her back for a moment, still stunned by how this day was actually happening. Internally slapping himself an abandoning his regret for the time being, he leapt to his feet and trotted after Erza, catching up to her just as she reached the door. He could resume punishing himself tomorrow, he decided as the two of them stepped in to the sunlight. Both of them blinked blearily for a few moments in the bright light, waiting for their eyes to adjust.

Jellal immediately became self-conscious of being out in the open. Even though the bustling streets before him were paying him no attention, he felt intimidated. He had not been out in such a big city in broad daylight since he had become a fugitive. He jumped as he felt a hand on his shoulder.

Erza had noticed immediately how Jellal had tensed sharply as soon as they had stepped outside. She reached out a hand and placed it on his arm, trying to calm her friend down. He jumped slightly at the contact and whipped around to look at her. His sharp intake of breath and wide eyes were proof enough of how uncomfortable he was. Perhaps taking him out wasn't the best idea for helping him if he was trying to relax . . .

She let her hand slip down and wrap around his wrist, tugging on it in indication for him to follow her.

"Come on. We're going to take the back streets. They'll be a lot less crowded because tourists don't take them." She explained, walking slowly in the hope that he would follow her. She was suppressed when he moved obediently, not putting up a fight as she led him out of the front gates and to the left, away from the tumultuous crowds of the main street.

"Thanks," Jellal sighed in relief, bowing his head and letting Erza pull him away from the crowds and off down a side street. She gradually slowed her pace down once they wee off the main street and he allowed himself to walk beside her. He had to admit he felt somewhat more comfortable here: there were much fewer people milling around on the street and he felt more at home around the little, quant shops that lined the street here as opposed to the larger ones of the town square.

Jellal felt as Erza's hand began to slide from around his wrist and before he could stop himself he caught it in his. Quickly realizing his mistake, he felt his cheeks flush and made to release his grip, only to find that the instant he loosened his grip she slipped her fingers between his, interlocking them. Jellal took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. _'We're just friends. It's no big deal; she's just trying to keep you from getting lost. You in no way deserve her,'_ he told himself.

"Oh! Erza!"

Both the requip mage and the heavenly body mage stopped, turning in the direction of whoever had called out to her. Jellal was struck with another panic attack as Erza eagerly started to drag him towards some kind of small plant shop where an old woman was standing outside.

"How are you?" The short, old lady asked as Erza walked up, Jellal trailing cautiously behind her.

"I'm doing well, thank you." Erza smiled back. "How is business?"

"Oh! Very good with all these tourist about! I swear, there are more and more of them every year," The woman said thoughtfully. Jellal's heart skipped in his chest as the woman turned her attention towards him. "So who's this? He looks familiar."

He took in a sharp breath and prepared himself to sprint off at a moment's notice. He might have already if it had not been for Erza' tight grip on his hand. It bewildered him on how she could seem so calm.

"No, he just has one of those faces." Erza began to explain. "You're probably confusing him with-"

"I know!" She cried, her face lighting up in remembrance.

Erza's hand tightened around his, preventing him from escape. Jellal bowed his out of shame, waiting for the inevitable condemnation that would come from the old lady's lips.

"He's your boyfriend, isn't he?"

Jellal's head snapped up and he felt his face heat up. The blush quickly crept rom his cheeks all the way up to his ears and down the back of his neck. He glanced over and from what he could see Erza's face was sporting a similar shade.

"Ah, no. He's actually just one of my friends visiting from out of town. I'm showing him around for the day." Erza explained. "He comes from . . . a very secluded life," She said slowly, picking her words carefully, "and was uncomfortable in the larger crowds on the main street, so we're taking the scenic route."

"Oh, that's completely understandable dear." The old woman said kindly, turning to address Jellal. "I can't bear the crowds much myself and I live here. Still, you've got quite a friend here to guide you around." She smiled. "Erza is one of the best people you could have with you."

"I know." Jellal said, bowing his head in respect. "And thank you for your understanding."

"Well aren't you charming." The shopkeeper smiled. "And so respectful too. It's a shame you to aren't going out, Erza. You two look so cute together and this boy is a real keeper." She winked.

"I hate to be rude, but we should get going if we want to make it to the bookstore before the crowds find it." Erza said, fighting down another blush. "It's been nice to see you."

"You too dear," the old woman smiled. "And feel free to bring your handsome friend back anytime!"

With that Jellal let Erza lead him away from the old woman's shop and pull him back onto the street. He let out a sigh a relief and massaged the bridge of his nose with his free hand. After a few minutes of awkward silence, Erza began to explain to him about many of the different shops they were passing. Most of the places they passed were just small restaurants or local businesses, but there were a few more touristy shops nestled between them as well. Jellal listened carefully, occasionally asking Erza questions about some of the more intriguing shops they passed, one of which being a magic shop. She told him that though she had seen a few books in that store before, that they were not very reliable and that the store she was taking him to would have a much better selection. The two made it to the aforementioned bookstore without being stopped by anyone else, much to Jellal's relief.

Upon stepping inside, they were greeted by the smell of aged paper and worn leather, a smell that Jellal particularly enjoyed. The man behind the front counter looked up, taking a moment to stare at the couple before nodding politely at Erza. Aside from the two, only a few other people were milling about in the store. Erza pulled on his hand, indicating for him to follow her as she weaved her way through the shelves and towards the back of the store.

"I think we lost them." Meredy sighed as she scanned the street for any sign of scarlet or blue.

"Those two can't have gone far. I swear I just saw them a moment ago." Ultear reasoned. "They must have ducked into one of the shops, but I have no clue which one."

"There's a cake shop just around the corner that Erza frequents." Mira inputted. "Maybe they went there."

The three of them were standing in the street, trying to find out which direction the couple had disappeared in. Despite the fact that the streets were not very crowded, they had still managed to lose sight of the two. Granted, it was also because of this fact that they had to follow their guild mates from so far behind in order not to get caught following them.

"And they were both doing so well too; not a single lie from either of them yet." Mira groaned.

"I'll admit I had my doubts in the beginning that this would actually work, but it's going so smoothly." Ultear confessed. "Now if only we could find those two again . . ."

"Are you sure this is a completely safe method Mira?" Meredy asked, still on the fence about their methods.

"Yep," the bar maid smiled happily. "I promise it's 100% safe. And don't worry, it should wear off by tomorrow."

"I give up!" Ultear snapped in frustration. "Let's go check the cake place."

Jellal stood mesmerized by the shelf before him. Erza had led him to the very back of the store, where a single case of magic books was housed. Even though it was only one case, the shelf stretched higher than any of the other shelves and was packed to the brim with ancient texts and advanced books.

Erza smiled as she watched him stare at the books, obviously pleased with the selection before him. He reached out and carefully ran his fingers down the spine of one before expertly sliding it from its place and propping it open in his hand. He skimmed a couple of pages before closing the book and returning it to its home on the shelf.

It took a good hour of this process before the heavenly body wizard was satisfied. He sat crouched; staring at the four books he had narrowed his search down to, all of which interested him.

"Made your decision?" Erza asked, peaking over his shoulder at the books he was judging.

"No." He sighed, bowing his head. "I'd like to read all of them, but I probably shouldn't."

"Why not?" Erza asked, crouching down next to him so that she could look him in the eye without him having to strain his neck.

He smiled ruefully, turning to look at her. "Well with me being, you know, it's kind of hard to carry extra weight around if it's not a necessity. It'd probably be best if I only get one," He said, "but I don't know when I'll ever be back in town or see these editions again."

The poorly hidden hint of disappointment in his voice did not go unnoticed by his friend, prompting her to think of a solution.

"You said your main problem is that you'd have no place to keep them all because you'd have to carry them, right? So if you found a place where you could keep them you would buy them for yourself?" Erza asked.

"I guess I might." Jellal began slowly. "Why do you ask?"

"I have space on my book shelf in my apartment and I don't read too often, so if you wanted to buy them and keep the ones you couldn't carry there, then that would be fine with me." The scarlet haired mage explained.

Jellal stared at her for a moment, breathing in deeply. Well, if he was going to break his rules of self-punishment today, then he might as well break all of them . . .

"If it's not too much trouble?" He asked hopefully.

"It's none at all." She smiled back at him.

He felt his stomach twist in an unknown feeling. He knew that he shouldn't accept her offer, there being no way that he deserved her kindness, and yet she continuously offered it to him. He could not fully comprehend why she had forgiven, but maybe he should follow in her example and start cutting himself some slack . . .

After paying, the two mages returned to the street. Jellal had the books tucked under his arm. Since it was around noon by that time the streets were a bit more freed up. It was much to Erza's surprise when he had reached to intertwine his free hand with hers. Something had caused his mood to change; nothing too drastic, but definitely different.

"So where do you want to go next?" Erza asked as they walked aimlessly down the street.

"I picked last time. It's your turn." Jellal shrugged.

"Today is about _you_ relaxing. You pick." She ordered.

"Well I'm going to _relax_ then and let you pick."

Erza scowled at him and he just grinned. It did not take long for her frown to fade as she fought back a smile.

"I guess I know a good place where we could grab a bite to eat." Erza decided, her face instantly brightening as she began to drag him down the street again.

Jellal had no trouble catching up with her, his strides being longer. She finally pulled him to a stop once they were in front of a bakery. Perhaps not his first idea for what to eat for lunch, but the smells wafting out of its open windows quickly coaxed him into accepting it.

"Give it up, Ul. Those two are long gone." Meredy sighed into her drink.

"You don't think they could have given us the slip on purpose, do you?" Mira asked.

"No way." Ultear said, shaking her head. "Jellal's too distracted around Erza to have noticed something like us following them and I'm guessing that Erza was focusing an equal amount of attention on him."

"I still wonder-"

"Quick! Hide!" Meredy hissed, pulling her companions over and whipping open a nearby newspaper so as to obscure the three from the rest of the bakery.

"Meredy! What are you doing?" Ultear hissed, confused by the girl's sudden actions. The pink haired girl said nothing, but instead brought the newspaper down just enough so that the three of them could see over it.

They watched as Erza and Jellal stepped inside the building.

"Were they holding hands?" Mira asked excitedly as the two newcomers separated and walked over to the counter to order.

"What's Jellal got under his arm?" Ultear asked, trying to see what their guild master was carrying from the awkward angle she was sitting at.

"I think he's got some books." Meredy guessed, having a better angle than Ultear did.

"That dork. He's going to be the one to carry them."

The group fell silent as the watched the couple get their food and prayed that the two wouldn't sit near them. It was much to their relief when Jellal held the door open for Erza as the two of them chose to sit outside. The matchmakers watched intently, trying to make out what they were saying. Unfortunately, there wasn't much communication going on for them to monitor. Erza was busy happily eater her piece of strawberry cheesecake and Jellal was busy staring at an oblivious Erza, the male occasionally lifting his cappuccino to take a sip but never taking his eyes off the scarlet haired knight in front of him.

That evening Fairy Tail was a riot, celebrating the visitation they were receiving from Crime Sorciere. After a long day of secretive stalking, Ultear, Mira, and Meredy had given up their quest to relax for a bit, though they still kept tabs on the couple throughout the party. It wasn't until very late that Meredy rounded up her accomplices with some news.

"Jellal and Erza are sitting outside the back talking. They just left."

"Perfect." Mira smiled. "Come on. If we go sit on the balcony out there then we can eavesdrop on them.

"What wrong Jellal?" Erza asked, sitting down next to the mage.

After eating at the bakery, the two had returned to the guild for some own time. Spending time out in public had been stressful for Jellal and, though he _had_ enjoyed, he was in need of some time to recuperate. He mostly had just stared into the distance, deep in thought, but Erza noticed that whatever he was thinking about was beginning to increasingly agitate the man. It had finally gotten to the point where she was about to drag him off herself so that she could try to get to the bottom of it, but he beat her to the punch and asked if they could talk outside for a bit, get some fresh air.

In response to the current question at hand, the blue haired man sighed and ran a hand through his hair before answering.

"I don't want to go."

His mouth instantly snapped shut in surprise. He had meant to form a response, but before he could stop himself the truth had jumped right out of his mouth. He could see Erza's eyes wide with surprise at the comment as well and he swallowed nervously.

"You know that you're welcome at Fairy Tail any time, Ultear and Meredy too." Erza responded.

"I mean I don't want to leave you again." Jellal mumbled, his face turning a deep shade of red. "I can't stand not knowing if and when I'm going to get to see you next. It hurts."

"It hurts?" Erza swallowed, sure that her face was well on the way to matching the color of her hair by now.

"It aches all the time." He explains desperately. "I know I said I don't deserve you, which is true, but I also know that for whatever reason you've entirely disregarded that fact. I still can't fully understand why, but I want to. I want to understand. And I know that I said I'd be ok if you found someone else because they would be better than me, but I'm not. It's so selfish, but the thought that someone else would get to spend the rest of their life with you and not me just breaks me." When his explanation ends his voice is barely a whisper. "So please, don't make me go." He can no longer look her in the eyes and so he turns his head down to stare at the grass beneath his boots, impatiently waiting his fate.

Where this came from? It had been the truth that he had been suppressing for years, but he had no idea as to why it was all pouring out now. It had been on his mind all afternoon, gnawing at him to the point where he finally couldn't take it any more.

Jellal suddenly tensed as the feeling of two arms wrapped themselves around his torso. He immediately accepted the gesture and returned it, bringing the woman in front of him closer to him and clutching her tightly.

"You idiot." Erza mumbled into his shoulder, trying to hide the tears coming from her eyes. "I'm always going to be here for you; don't think I'm going anywhere." She said comfortingly, smoothing down the hairs on the back of his neck with one hand.

"I love you so much." Jellal whispered.

"I love you too." Erza affirmed.

"Ok, I'll admit it." Meredy finally sighed, tearing her gaze away from the couple to look at her accomplices. "I guess putting a truth potion in their morning coffee was a really clever idea."

"Told you so." Ultear gloated. "Now that the King of the Dorks here is finally with the Queen of the Fairies, we'll definitely get to visit Fairy Tail a lot more which means that you'll get to see some of your friends more often." This rationing caused the younger girl to smile and hum happily to herself. "Where did you get something like a truth potion anyways Mira?" Ultear asked, suddenly curious. Most bar tenders she knew didn't keep magical items like that on hand, so the only way for smiling girl in front of her to have gotten it somewhere so early in the morning was if…

"Oh, I've been saving that for a special occasion for a while now." Mira smiled. "I'd tried setting Erza up with countless guys before, but could never figure out why she didn't take to any of them until we were at the Dai Matou Endu last year." Mira smiled as she remembered the event. The interactions she had seen between Jellal and Erza had been more than enough to convince her of what her new project would be and she had been patiently waiting for a chance to spring a trap on the two ever since.

"I haven't even bothered trying to set Jellal up more than once: the first time was enough proof of who he was supposed to be with." Ultear countered, remembering the time that she he tried to set Jellal up with someone when they were members of the Magic Council. Even when being under someone else's control, the will to be with Erza couldn't be crushed out of him.

"Ultear?" Both the woman questioned and her new friend turned to look Meredy as she spoke up. "If Jellal is a dork and Erza is a fairy, wouldn't that make their children forks?"

Both women stared at the girl, one perplexed and one amused, before Ultear finally responded.

"Yes Meredy. Yes it would." She answered smiling.

"Oh! I hope they get some forks together soon!" Mira clapped, excited by the thought of having more kids like Asuka around the guild.

All three of them laughed at the thought of the other two as parents.

"So what do we do now?" Meredy asked as their laughter died down.

"I have a suggestion." Mira said brightly. The other two turned and looked at her expectantly. "We could start one of Fairy Tail's famous betting pools…" She smiled.

"And just what would this pool be over?" Ultear asked mischievously.

"I was thinking forks."

"What do you think, Ul? Want to start a betting pool over when Jellal and Erza are going to get forks?" Meredy asked excitedly.

"Getting forks, how many forks, what color forks, the works," her friend nodded, smirking. "We should be safe so long as those two never find out." Ultear chuckled.

"All righty then," Mira smiled, pulling out a pad of paper and pen from behind the bar. "How many forks should I put you down for?"

A/N: So I got bored and wrote a part 2! It turned out much longer than I originally expected. Not quite sure if I'll continue the story, so I'll just let the masses decide. Anyhow, I've always liked the head-cannon that Jellal is not just a huge dork, but he's a huge dork who loves to read among other sophisticated activities. Of course with being a fugitive an all, his time for doing such things has been drastically reduced. He always carries a few books with him since having none at all would drive him mad. He carries two because his life on the run would make it hard for him to carry around a library: one is a book on constellations (because studying them helps him as a heavenly body mage) and the other is a book containing fairy tales like the ones Grandpa Rob had told them when they were back in the tower. And of course Ultear and Meredy tease him for being such a dork.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail

_All three of them laughed at the thought of Erza and Jellal as parents._

"_So what do we do now?" Meredy asked as their laughter died down._

"_I have a suggestion." Mira said brightly. The other two turned and looked at her expectantly. "We could start one of Fairy Tail's famous betting pools…" She smiled._

"_And just what would this pool be over?" Ultear asked mischievously._

"_I was thinking forks."_

"_What do you think, Ul? Want to start a betting pool over when Jellal and Erza are going to get forks?" Meredy asked excitedly._

"_Getting forks, how many forks, what color forks, the works," her friend nodded, smirking. "We should be safe so long as those two never find out." Ultear chuckled._

"_All righty then," Mira smiled, pulling out a pad of paper and pen from behind the bar. "How many forks should I put you down for?"_

That night the mages of both Crime Sorciere and Fairy Tail slept well, or at least all except one. Erza Scarlet was lying awake in her room, her insomnia due to an onset of unexpected nightmares. She had gone to sleep with butterflies in her stomach at the advancement of the relationship between her and Jellal, but now she was shivering in her bed as she tried to shake the dark memories away of the dream that had woken her up. After a few more moments of deep breathing in an attempt to calm herself, she gave up.

She stood up, groaning at the ache she felt in her muscles, wrapping herself in a blanket before starting to wind her way through her apartment. Once she was outside, it took her only a few minutes for her to walk from Fairy Hills to Fairy Tail and find the room she was looking for.

Jellal had fallen asleep relatively easy once he had turned in for the night. The long day he had spent with Erza had been very enjoyable for him, but also very taxing. That combined with the large, warm bed with which he had been provided was plenty enough to entice him to fall asleep within a short matter of minutes. But now he was interrupted.

Jellal was awoken by a soft knocking on the door to the one room bedroom that Fairy Tail had been so kind as to lend him for his stay. He sat up and stretched wearily before sliding out of bed and making the short stumble to his front door. He pulled it open and stopped short at the sight of who was staring up at him.

"Erza? What are you doing here right now?" He mumbled sleepily, yawning afterwards to punctuate the end of the sentence.

"I had a nightmare." She grumbled, embarrassed. "Can I . . . Can I sleep with you for tonight?" She asked, looking up at him pleadingly.

Though he certainly was not amused that his friend was having nightmares, a small smile played across his face at the sight of seeing the might and feared Titania looking up at him so shyly, like a small child. "Of course." He replied softly, stepping closer to the door in order to let her shuffle by him and inside the room. He closed the door behind her carefully so as not to catch the tail of her blanket before following her back into the room. She slid under the covers of the bed, shedding her blanket in the process, and he followed her in suit. He switched off the lamp by the bedside and flipped back over so that he was facing her.

Erza shuddered slightly at the sudden darkness, the memories of her nightmare flashing before her eyes. She let out a soft squeak as a lithe arm immediately reached over her and pulled her against the chest of the man whose bed she was currently invading. Jellal wrapped his arms protectively around her form, bringing his face close to hers in the darkness so that she could see his eyes staring at her intensely. Their proximity caused his familiar scent to invade her nose, causing her to subconsciously relax further into his hold. She felt the heat rise in her face as she scooched as close as she could to him and clutched at the front of his shirt.

"You helped me fight off my darkness, now I'll help you fight of yours." He whispered bluntly. "Whatever it may be."

And with that he planted a chaste kiss on the crest of her head before whispering for her to go to sleep. Jellal himself choose to stay awake until he heard Erza's breathing slow down and even out, proof to him that he was successful in banishing her nightmares for the time being. Though he was a tad bit curious as to what could have caused the strong woman to become so shaken up, he knew better than to ask. Asking would only remind her of the pain and he knew that she would tell him when she was good and ready.

The next morning at breakfast, neither Ultear nor Meredy dared to tease Erza about when they knocked on Jellal's door earlier that morning only to find the scarlet haired mage answering the door in his stead. Still, the insinuating comments that they kept dropping where enough to make the now-dating couple squirm in their seats. Both had tried to explain to Jellal's teammates that Erza had simply needed someone to comfort her, but that did not seem to abate their indirect teasing in the slightest. Giving up, Erza had left to return the blanket she had been wrapped in the previous night back to her room. It had been a rather relaxed morning in the guild seeing as almost everyone was still half asleep. Jellal decided that he could get used to relaxing a bit more often.

That is, until the doors to the guild burst open and Jet raced into the hall.

"They're here! In town! They're coming here and we have to hide them NOW." He yelled, running inside.

"Who's here?" Someone else in the guild yelled back, everyone in the room suddenly becoming alert at the sound of the comrade's panicked tone.

"The rune knights! They're being led here by Lahar and Doranbolt!"

Jellal, Meredy, and Ultear immediately jumped to their feet, ready to sprint from the guild.

"It's no use." Jet snapped at them. "There's already rune knights stationed all around the town's borders. You have no chance at getting out for the moment, which means that we'll have to find a way to hide you all."

"I know transformation magic and I've taught Meredy enough to get by! Focus on lover-boy over here!" Ultear snapped, pushing her frozen guild master towards the other wizards. With that, she and the young pink-haired girl immediately changed their appearances with a bright flash of magic, leaving Jellal feeling terrified.

He did not, however, have time to be terrified for long as the entire guild swarmed around him in a frenzy, attempting to think up ideas to save their new friend.

"We could cut off his hair and use magic to hide his tattoo!"

"What? You want Erza to kill us too?"

"Hide him!"

"Where?!"

"How the hell am I supposed to know?!"

"Why doesn't anyone know any magic for this?"

"Oh wait! I DO!"

"THEN WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU STANDING AROUND FOR WAVING YOUR HAND AROUND IN THE AIR LIKE AN IDIOT?!"

Before Jellal could figure out what was happening, someone threw some sort of magic at him and he felt as if he were being doused with ice water. He jolted up and groaned. Something was off. He sat in confusion. Why was everyone looking at him so strangely all of a sudden?

"Don't freak out: it's reversible. Just shut up and play along." Gray whispered in his ear before the ice mage straitened up. It was at that moment that Erza burst into the guild.

"Where the hell is Jel-" She stopped short, gaping at him.

Why the hell wouldn't anyone tell him what was going on? What had Fairy Tail done to him?

Erza turned and stared questioningly at Macao with a look of disbelief on her face.

"You turned him into a tiger? You couldn't have chosen something a _little_ bit less conspicuous? Seriously, he's GIGANTIC."

By this time with all of the yelling, master Makarov had finally made an appearance up on the second floor banister of the guild. He surveyed the chaos for a moment before speaking.

"What's going on brats?" he boomed, effectively silencing the entire guild.

"Rune knight are coming here, most likely to search Crime Sorciere." Mira explained. "We just finished disguising them."

"This is a troubling situation." Makarov muttered to himself. He hopped down from the second floor and walked over to the bar. "How much time do you think we have until they get here?"

As if on cue the doors to Fairy Tail burst open for a third time that morning, though this time its guests were much less welcome.

"Good morning." Lahar said flatly, stepping farther into the guild.

"Good morning, Captain. To what occasion does Fairy Tail owe the pleasure of this visit?" Makarov smiled. "Did Natsu and Gray blow up a building again?"

"If only it were that simple." Lahar replied. "We received a tip that the fugitive Jellal Fernandes was seen in Magnolia just yesterday. Myself and the rune knights will be here in town for a few days to investigate, but we thought that we ought to notify Fairy Tail as the official guild of the city and ask you to keep an eye out for anything suspicious." Lahar finished coolly, his eyes sliding over to look at Erza.

"Why on earthland is there a tiger standing behind you Miss Scarlet?" Lahar frowned. But before Erza could answer, Laxus came to her rescue. "You do know that it _is_ illegal to purchase exotic animals such as tigers?"

"Erza recently got back from a mission which involved a dark guild masquerading as a circus." The thunder dragon slayer responded coolly. "This guy was left all alone. The poor beast apparently took a liking to our fairy queen and followed her home. I think he's a pest, but she _insists _that we keep him. I guess she's taken a liking to him too. Anyways, he's her new pet." Laxus smirked, turning to make eye contact with the scarlet knight.

Erza managed to keep her face from betraying her emotions at the moment, but Laxus was sure as anything that he would take hell from her for the comments later. He was sure that her heart was beating a hundred times per second, but if his clever plan worked . . .

"Illegal to buy a tiger, yes. But not illegal if the tiger travels naturally and of its own accordance." Doranbolt corrected.

(_"Oh he came to her naturally and of his own accord, all right." Ultear whispered to Meredy behind her hand so that only her guild mate could hear her._)

Most of the rune knights seemed convinced by the story, but Lahar still looked slightly suspicious.

"It is a very elegant animal." Doranbolt admired, nodding at Erza.

Lahar, still looking skeptical, took a step forward to inspect the animal closer. He reached out a hand to pet the large cat's head.

Jellal, despite how intensely uncomfortable he was managed to sit still as Lahar rubbed his head awkwardly. To his relief it was only a few seconds before the captain pulled away. Jellal could feel the fur along his spine puffed up in a display of discomfort.

"Well it would seem that you have your . . . pet very well trained Miss Scarlet. Just remember that if you're going to take him out for a walk, which assume you will need to eventually, that you will need to keep him on a leash." Lahar reminded her.

"Of course." Erza responded seriously.

Giving on last glance at the beast standing behind Erza before giving a respectful nod to Makarov, Lahar turned on his heals and led the knights out of the guild.

After a few minutes and a sentry to make sure that the officials were in fact gone, the entire guild let out a sigh of relief. Macao reversed the magic on Jellal and the blue-haired man slumped to the ground, Ultear and Meredy releasing their own spells and walked over to their fearless leader. Erza sank down to her knees beside her friend and pat his back sympathetically. He sat up slowly, breath still shaking from his latest encounter with his possible death. He slowly stood up, extending a hand to Erza and bringing her to her feet as well. Jellal's face slowly stiffened as he mentally made a decision.

"I'm so sorry." He whispered to Erza, raising her hand, which was still clasping his, and brushing it with his lips.

"We have to go." He announced.


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: Super chapter time! (because this is what happens when I my internet goes out for about two weeks and the company won't come repair it) So, I just combine chapters. Reviieeewwwssss: I enjoy reading them. Especially the ones I've already gotten. Yall are great! So anyways, enjoy and please leave your thoughts in the comments. ^.^_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail_

_After a few minutes and a sentry to make sure that the officials were in fact gone, the entire guild let out a sigh of relief. Macao reversed the magic on Jellal and the blue-haired man slumped to the ground, Ultear and Meredy releasing their own spells and walked over to their fearless leader. Erza sank down to her knees beside her friend and pat his back sympathetically. He sat up slowly, breath still shaking from his latest encounter with his possible death. He slowly stood up, extending a hand to Erza and bringing her to her feet as well. Jellal's face slowly stiffened as he mentally made a decision._

"_I'm so sorry." He whispered to Erza, raising her hand, which was still clasping his, and brushing it with his lips._

"_We have to go." He announced._

"I can't let Fairy Tail get in trouble because of my mistake." Jellal sighed. "Erza, I'm so sorry. I should have been more careful. I'll be in contact with you as soon as I safely can." He said, in a pained voice, turning all of his attention to the woman he was addressing.

"I hate to burst your bubble, but there are already rune knights positioned all around the borders of the town." Jet informed them. "You'll have to wait a few days before you have any chance to get out of town."

"I'm sure we'll be able to find-"  
"Jellal, could I have a word please? A meeting between guild masters, if you would." Makarov interrupted, gesturing for the man to follow him up the stairs to his office.

Jellal frowned slightly, but followed the old man obediently, thought with slight hesitation, up the stairs to the master's office and away from the bubbling guildhall. His heart swelled at the sight of Erza staring back up at him with a hurt look in her eyes and he groaned internally. And he had been doing so well too. He guiltily turned away and followed the other master into his office before closing the door behind them.

"Now tell me what the problem is, son." Makarov sighed, hopping up onto his desk so that he could look the tall mage in the eyes. Jellal wandered over and slunk down in one of the chairs before the other master's desk. He buried his face in his hands, groaning loudly out of frustration before he continued.

"I want to protect Crime Sorciere because they're my guild and my family. I want to protect Fairy Tail because of all that you've done for Crime Sorciere and me personally, but I also want to protect it because of _her. _I want to protect in because it's important to her, but also because by doing so I will be protecting her from more pain." He sighed, knowing full well that Makarov knew to whom he was referring.

"Though that it a noble cause, you and I both know that _she _of all people does not need protecting." Makarov replied seriously. "Trust me, she knows how to look after herself and maybe it's time that you took a leaf out of her book. You've been strong for such a long time for a brat that I think you've forgotten what it's like to rely on your family."

"But I do rely on Ultear and Meredy." Jellal retorted, raising his head.

"Your _entire _family." Makarov corrected. "Fairy Tail is your family too. Ever since you fought with us in the Grand Magic Games. Mavis took a liking to you." He said, a smile creeping onto his face. "And I'm sure that we have a certain requip mage who took a liking to you a long, _long_ time ago. Thusly, you and the rest of Crime Sorciere are our family and so we will protect you." Makarov smiled.

"Thank you, but I don't deserve such kindness. I don't think I can accept this." He began, casting his eyes downwards as he felt a familiar wave of guilt wash over himself. "If you all were to be caught harboring me . . ."

"You do and you will!" Makarov snapped suddenly, causing Jellal to jolt back in his seat and his head to shoot up again in surprise. "I know there is nothing I can do or say to completely change your mind, that is a peace you will have to find your own, but if I can be of some help along the way, then I will try! And you have plenty of other friends who are here for you too, so do not doubt yourself!" The other master declared defiantly, eyes boring intensely into Jellal's.

Jellal sat in stunned silence for a moment, frozen by the strong words that had just been hurled at him. "Thank you." He whispered gently, bowing his head as a small smile spread across his face. "I'm sorry for doubting you. I made a promise to try to be better and I fully intend to live up to it."

"That's the spirit!" Makarov grinned. "Now that that's settled, or for the time being at least, we should make some arrangements on Crime Sorciere's stay. Those rooms you're staying in now are for the medical wing and we may need those beds, so I'm going to have you all moved in with some of the members of Fairy Tail. Rune knights will be less likely to find you with them and you'll be much more comfortable with them. If I'm correct, Meredy is good friends with Juvia, yes?" Jellal nodded in response. "Good. I'll ask if Juvia will let Meredy stay with her, but I don't think there should be a problem there. And what of Ultear?"

"She seems to get along well with Mira, but I don't really know." Jellal shrugged helplessly.

"All right then. I'll see if they're ok with that arrangement." Makarov nodded. "And what about you? Is there any _particular_ person you would like to stay with?" The other guild master smirked. Jellal coughed nervously before responding.

"I'm just fine wherever you have room for me." He responded, looking away. He already had a hint of an idea of who he would be put with.

"We'll see if Laxus can take you." Makarov said brightly. Jellal shoved down his embarrassment: of course he had thought that he was going to be placed with _her_. Still, he was grateful of the fact that they were even offering him a place to stay, sheltering him from the government even. He smiled and thanked the other master, he simply nodded and smiled in return.

"Shall we go speak to our guilds then?"

"I think that we've probably kept them waiting for long enough." Jellal agreed.

The two of them left the office and returned to the top of the staircase. Once they appeared, the guild, which had been filled with a buzz of white noise, silenced in anticipation.

"Jellal has reconsidered and decided that it would be best if Crime Sorciere stays with us for a little while, at least until some of the military activity around here has died down enough for them to move safely." Makarov announced, drawing the crowd's attention towards himself. "With that fact, our guests will need some more permanent places of residence until they can flee the city. I was hoping that we could split them up among our members to try and keep the soldiers from detecting a significant increase of magic power in any certain area. With that being said, Juvia," he called, catching the water mage's attention, "can Meredy stay with you?"

"Of course! Juvia would be very happy to help out her friend!" The blue haired girl beamed, throwing a smile at her new roommate. The pink haired girl grinned back in response, walking over towards her host.

"Good! Mira, could Ultear stay with you?" Makarov asked.

"It's not a problem at all!" The white haired bar maid smiled. Ultear nodded her thanks and wandered over to her host as well.

"All right. One more!" Makarov boomed. "Laxus, can you take Jellal?"

"Sorry gramps." The thunder dragon slayer called back, shaking his head from side to side.

"Why not?" Makarov asked curiously.

"I'm leaving for a big, important mission early in the morning, remember? I don't have time to sit around here babysit Mystogan."

"I'm not Mystogan and I don't need to be babysat." Jellal grumbled to himself, rolling his eyes.

"Sure you don't." Laxus smirked.

"Fine, fine. Is there anyone else who would be willing to take Jellal? It would just be for the next few days." Makarov asked the guild.

Jellal was surprised when a slew of people actually raised their hands and volunteered to shelter him. He bowed his head out of thankfulness, not used to the kindness that they were showering him with. They were not even hesitant to take him under their roofs, even after he was sure that they were well aware of what crimes he had committed in his past.

"I'll take him: I have plenty of room and shouldn't have any problem keeping him out of trouble."

Jellal's head shot up at the familiar voice even though he already knew from the sound of her voice who was walking towards him. He watched as Erza drew closer to the stairs and he gravitated towards her from his place on the top step, pawing at the ground nervously with one foot as she drew closer.

"Of course _you_ know how to keep him in line." Laxus winked, causing the two mages to stop moving and blush. His comment drew others like it from the guild and much chuckling on their behalf.

"Now that that's settled, back to work with all of you!" Makarov snapped. "And keep an eye out for any Rune Knights snooping around here! If you see any near the guild, get back here as quick as you can to warn us. The three of you who are housing our visitors: you will be allowed to stay here and keep your guests company. Go get them settled in first, and then if it's all right with them you'll be allowed to go on minor missions."

Jellal trotted down the stairs to say goodbye to Ultear and Meredy, agreeing to meet with them the next day for lunch to talk about their situation. All agreed on the plan, the three took their separate ways and returned to their hosts, who had been waiting patiently for the three.

Erza let Jellal swing by his temporary room to grab his books before he followed her obediently back to her room to settle in to his new living quarters. The fact that Fairy Hills was an all female dorm was being temporarily suspended for him, but that didn't stop the landlady from eyeing him suspiciously and warning him not to try any "funny business." Once in her room, Erza showed him he bookcase where he could keep his books while traveling, him thanking her profusely all the while. She constantly assured him that it was nothing, and to forget it. After their stressful morning, Jellal and Erza decided on spending the rest of the day in her apartment relaxing where they would not be bothered. She was not in need of money from missions at the moment and to be quite honest, she just wanted to enjoy as much time as she could with Jellal before he had to leave again. Erza also had some weapons that were in desperate need of polishing. It took Jellal a little bit longer to settle down, him still being uneasy with the soldier situation, but Erza eventually coaxed him into relaxing to the point where Jellal was perfectly content lazing about on the floor, reading one of his new books while settled comfortably in a patch of sunlight. Erza was sitting, working on her weapons, only a few short feet away. She had quickly realized that Jellal seemed much more relaxed so long as she stayed in his peripheral vision, him turning his head and becoming alert whenever she would get up to get something. The day passed quickly for them, skimming through both lunch and dinner. They ate in Erza's apartment, not keen on leaving the room for much of anything. Soon they were ready for sleep, and since neither of them would take the bed and leave the other on the floor, they both ended up sleeping on the floor relatively near each other and smothered with blankets to keep the cold off of them. They lay in the dark for a few minutes, but the silence around them did not last long.

"Jellal, are you still cold?" Erza asked quietly, using a cautioned tone in case he was already asleep.

"Freezing. You too then?" Came the blue haired man's response through the darkness almost immediately. "Do you have any more extra blankets?"

"I only have one more blanket left." Erza called back.

"Share it?" He asked hopefully.

"I was thinking of keeping it all for me. . ." Erza replied teasingly.

"But Erza! What about me~?" He whined, playing along. He certainly was growing much more comfortable around the other mage.

"I guess I could you a corner. . ." She said contemplatively, a grin playing across her face in the darkness.

"I have a better idea!" Jellal concluded, a boyish smirk forming on his lips. He grabbed the last blanket by one edge in one hand and quickly moved over to Erza, capturing her with his other arm. In an instant of confidence he flipped them, rolling over and over until the blanket was all used up and they were wrapped side by side in a warm cocoon.

"Now we're both warm _and_ you can't escape!" He grinned victoriously.

"You can't either!" She smirked in return. Before he could wriggle away she brought her hands up and began to tickle his sides. Jellal jolted and tried to get free, but his own prank would be his undoing.

"Stop! Stop! I give up!" He howled. "You win Titania! I should have known I was no match for you, queen of the fairies!" He praised, trying to catch his breath as she withdrew he hands.

"And don't you forget it." She smirked, snuggling closer to him and feeding off his warmth. He happily accepted the affection and brought his arms up around her in return. "Now on a more serious note, would you care to tell me what you were thinking earlier? I thought you said that you weren't going to go running off like that on me any more."

A lump got caught in his throat, so instead of answering he chose to bury his face in the crook of her neck and inhaled deeply before continuing.

"I got scared." He muttered, glad that his face was hidden against her neck so that she couldn't see him blushing. "I was afraid that you would get in trouble, be hurt again because of me or my actions." He whispered, enjoying the feeling of her warm skin against his chilled forehead.

"You know that that's not going to happen." She whispered back in reassurance, placing a hand on his cheek and drawing his head back up level to hers. He looked back at her guiltily, trying to avert his eyes.

"I'm sorry. I should have had more faith in you." He murmured.

"You should have had more faith in yourself." She corrected. "If this is going to work, then you can't keep tiptoeing around me. You said that I am the one who walks in the light and you in the dark, yes?"

He nodded cautiously, unsure of where she was going with this.

"Then by that reasoning, if I say I see you as walking in the light as well, then it must be true." She stated.

"Erza, it's not that simple. I don't deserve-"

He was cut off as her lips pressed against his, efficiently silencing his tirade of self-denial. He hadn't even seen her coming.

Jellal sat frozen for a second in shock before he responded, kissing Erza back gently, with such tender uncertainty. After a few moments they pulled away from each other. Even though they were in the dark, both of them could see that the other's face was beet red.

"S-sorry." Erza murmured, looking away. "I just don't want you to think so poorly of yourself when it's not true."

Before she could continue he cut her off by sneaking a quick kiss on her lips and pulling back just far enough so that his forehead was resting against hers, leaving the woman opposite him sputtering.

"I'm trying. It's just going to take some time for me to accept this now that I'm trying. After all, it's not like this is going to change magically overnight." He said with an apologetic smile.

"I know." She sighed. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly the most patient person." She smiled sheepishly.

"You have every right not to be." He chuckled back.

Before they could continue, they were interrupted by the door to Erza's apartment being kicked open and someone throwing on the light in the other room. The two started to struggle as they tried to escape their cocoon to see what was happening.

"Hey Jellal, Erza! Rune knights are-"

Ultear paused as she entered the room, flicking on the lights in there too and being stuck silent by the sight of the two still wrapped up together in their shared blanket. A smirk pulled across the dark haired woman's face as her companions wandered in and the two trapped in the blanket jolted away from each other. Meredy and Mira walked in, surprisingly being followed also by Lisanna. All of them stopped at the sight of the fearsome Titania and the prodigal wizard wrapped up so closely to each other. Mira clapped happily and Lisanna chuckled. Meredy wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at Jellal, causing the man to blush uncomfortably. Erza was blushing too, though she managed to hide most of it from sight by pulling the edge of the blanket up across the bottom half of her face.

"It's not what you're thinking: we were just cold!" Jellal snapped nervously.

"That's exactly what I as thinking. So please tell me Jellal, what were you thinking I thought?" Ultear smirked, watching as the two mages' faces grew closer and closer to Erza's hair color by the second.

Jellal simply glowered up at her in response and went back to trying to free Erza and himself from their confines. Ultear walked over and grabbed one end of the blanket, yanking it hard. The force sent Jellal and Erza rolling out of the blanket in a tumble, leaving them sprawled out on the carpet.

"As I was saying, rune knights are here to do "safety checks" on all of the rooms, so we need to change you back into a tiger for a bit, just until they're gone."

Before he had time to argue, Jellal felt the familiar sensation of being doused in water. Mirajane thanked her younger sister and sent her back to her room.

Jellal, now a tiger once again, pouted. Meredy giggled at the fluffy animal and rushed forwards to pet him (her having been unable to when he was previously the animal because it would have been at an inappropriate time). Erza sat back while he looked at her pleadingly from his uncomfortable position in the pink haired girl's arms and Mira and Ultear simply watched on. Jellal was surprised to find that he enjoyed the feeling of having his head scratched, but it was overruled by how ridiculous about being pet in the first place. It was not until he accidentally purred at the pleasurable feeling of having his ears scratched, causing Ultear to laugh so hard she cried, that Jellal finally grew irritated enough to try to escape. Meredy threw her arms around his neck, keeping him from slinking away. He wiggled free and jumped away from the girls, all of whom (including Erza now) were laughing at him now. He gracefully landed a few feet away and prowled off, the sight of his fur fluffed up in agitation only fueling the girl's laughter even more. He disappeared around the other side of Erza's bed and sat down, leaving only the soft, white tip of his tail visible.

At the sound of a knock on the door, Meredy and Ultear quickly used their transformation magic to disguise themselves. Mira walked into the other room and answered the door. After a few moments the three girls who had been left in Erza's room heard as new pairs of boots entered the apartment and tracked towards them. Erza was not surprised in the slightest to see that Lahar was the one leading the searches on the rooms this evening. He had two more knights with him as he entered the room and Mira slipped by them into it as well.

"Good evening, Miss Scarlet." He greeted, bowing respectfully.

"Captain." She nodded, standing up.

"I'm not sure if you've heard yet, but we're doing some safety checks of the rooms for just tonight. I hope you don't mind: I'm sorry that we interrupted your party, but this is an important issue. We'll be out of you your way as soon as possible." He explained professionally. Erza was impressed by the fact that his apology was sincere and nodded in understanding.

"Of course, captain." She replied back with an equal level of profession. "If there's anything I can do to help speed along your search, please let me know."

"Thank you. There is one thing," Lahar began. "I think my men would be a little bit more comfortable if your pet tiger was in sight, assuming he's staying here with you. It's not that we don't trust you, but do understand such animals can put some people at unease."

"Of course. He should be around here somewhere." Erza nodded. She whistled lightly and Jellal took that as his signal to appear from his hiding place.

Slowly he got up and walked back around the bed. He had to fight off a grin at the sight of the knights accompanying Lahar jumping in surprise at his sudden proximity. Jellal prowled over to Erza. She gave him a discreet look and, taking a hint, he rubbed up against her leg affectionately and nudged her hand with his head, an indication for her to pet him. Erza was almost knocked over when Jellal rubbed against her and she used his head beneath her hand to steady herself. Seeming satisfied that the tiger was distracted, his eyes closed contentedly and purring deeply as Erza scratched behind his ears, the knights got to work on searching the apartment for the fugitive. Lahar talked idly with Erza about politics and thankfully ignored Jellal almost completely aside from occasionally reaching down and petting the tiger that was sitting happily beside the scarlet haired knight. Jellal did his best to ignore the man that was supposed to be hunting him down to bring him to justice.

It was only once the knights were finished searching and had been confirmed to be gone from the entire building with Lahar that Lisanna returned to the room and changed Jellal back. He did not like being changed into a tiger every other minute without anyone asking his opinion of the situation. Yes, he understood _why_ he had to cooperate with their plan by now, but that in no way meant that he had to be happy about it. However, now they were no longer in danger and yet for some reason the group had stuck around and continued to transform him back and forth into a tiger. At a lull in their entertainment, he quickly lunged to the side and hid behind the bed afterwards while he was thankfully still a human, glaring at the group of girls wearily from over it, ready to use meteor for a quick escape at a moment's notice. In all honesty, he had tried to sit as patiently as he could for them to wear themselves out, but it had become too much for the poor stoic-man's sanity to sit still any longer.

"Jel, come back and play!" Meredy pouted, sad at the loss of her new pet. Only his glaring eyes and shaggy blue head of hair was visible to them now.

"Not a chance." He snapped, glaring at the group of girls. He felt betrayed by Erza as she had let them stay just to torture him when all he wanted was to go back to sleep.

"Come on, Jellal. We promise we won't turn you into a tiger again." Ultear grinned, clearly enjoying the torment that they were inducing.

"That's what you said _last time_." He growled, referring to the torture they had been subjecting him to for the past hour. "What did I do to deserve this?" He groaned.

"You were stupid enough to not even put a disguise on when you decided to go on your little escapade when you know full well that you are a _wanted fugitive_." Ultear replied pointedly. "_This _is your punishment."

"You two were the ones who _insisted_ that I relax for the day!" He countered.

"Don't you try to pin this on us!" Meredy retorted.

"Yeah! It's not our fault that you can't function like a sensible human being whenever Erza is around." Ultear added in. Her comment caused both Jellal and Erza to blush.

"So that gives you the right to turn me into a tiger every other minute?" He glowered back. "I think not."

"Who's a pretty kitty?" The time mage taunted in return.

Jellal did not respond, but instead just ducked down and disappeared completely behind Erza's bed. They took his silence as a sign that they should let the exhausted man alone for the time being. Saying their goodbyes, Ultear, Meredy, Mira, and Lisanna left Jellal and Erza alone. Jellal said goodbye from his hiding spot, not wanting to risk leaving the safety of his spot. Only once the group was gone did the man slink out of hiding, returning to where he had been sleeping earlier and curling up among the blankets. Erza walked over and lay down next to him. He flipped over so that he was facing Erza and snuggled up against her, despite the slight awkwardness that he knew his action would cause. Jellal decided to forgive her for the time being, accepting the warmth of her embrace gladly, and making a mental note to confront her later about what had been a complete an utter betrayal as she had stood by and giggled at his suffering earlier.

They managed to sleep through the rest of the night without being interrupted again. After all the excitement of their day, the two had no problem sleeping well into the morning.

"Erza, you need to get up." Jellal groaned, poking the sleeping female with his foot.

"Five more minutes. . ." She groaned, turning over in her sleep and leaving him to talk to her back.

Jellal had already been up for a while by now. His lifestyle usually dictated as such: wake up early and get running from the counsel or else start chasing more dark guilds. Sleeping in (or too much at all really) was not something that Jellal Fernandes was accustomed to and it would not come easily to him unless he was in dire need of sleep, which would not be the case so long as he was sleeping inside, away from the harsh elements, and safely swaddled in an array of warm blankets as he had been for the previous few nights. Also the fact the so many rune knights were still in town triggered his sense of self-preservation and awakened him earlier than he would have liked. Personally, he would have much rather have been curled up under the blankets, lazing by Erza's side all through the morning.

"Erzaaaaa. . ."

"Jellaaaaaaal. . ."

He sighed and gave up, stalking off in search of the kitchen. Hopefully a warm breakfast will be able to coax her out of sleeping through half of the day. He knew that they were safe enough in her apartment, but he would still feel safer if she was awake. The blue haired wizard found the kitchen easily enough and went to work. Just because he was on the run and never stayed in one place for long most certainly mean that the man had denied himself the service of learning how to cook in case the need should arrive. In fact, he was pretty good if he did say so himself. Soon he had two plates topped with eggs, bacon, and toast. He found his way back to Erza's room and slid inside. The sight that greeted him made him stop in surprise.

A fort. A pillows and blankets fort, to be exact. While he had been away cooking, Erza had apparently taken it upon herself to transform all of their sleeping gear into a magnificent structure, which now occupied much of the room. Jellal inched into the room, careful not to disturb the structure lest he accidentally send it tumbling down. He was confused because he couldn't find the entrance. Thankfully, the smell of breakfast attracted Erza's attention, causing her to stick her head out from behind a blanket that was blocking the secret passageway inside. A smile lit up across her face and he could feel one creep up on his face in likeness.

"Can I come in?" He asked hopefully.

"That depends," Erza began slyly. "Is one of those plates for me?"

"Of course." Jellal nodded.

"Then I guess I could let you inside." The scarlet haired mage smiled, pulling the blanket aside to allow him entrance. Jellal eagerly walked inside and instantly had to duck to keep from hitting his head on the low canopy ceiling.

"I'm quite impressed." He complemented, sitting down and handing Erza her plate and silverware. "I thought you would still be out cold by the time I got back."

"You had already woken me up: I just wanted to give you a hard time for it because it was so early." She taunted. "And thanks for the breakfast! It's delicious!"

"It was meant to be a bribe to get you out of bed." He grumbled.

"Oh it was a bribe all right." She laughed. "And, no offense, but I didn't know you were such a great cook." She added, taking a bite into her piece of toast.

"Everyone's always so surprised. Really, what is so surprising about the fact that I can cook?" he protested. "Ultear and Meredy were extremely surprised too. They never let me hear the end of it either, refer to me as 'Guild Master Housewife.'"

"I didn't mean it in a bad way!" Erza quickly corrected, snickering a bit at Ultear and Meredy's nickname for Jellal. "All I meant was that it's a skill that not a lot of guys, especially in Fairy Tail, possess. It's a really nice change of pace actually." She assured him. The explanation seemed to appease the man sitting opposite her and he smiled shyly, obviously pleased by the praise he was receiving.

"This is an impressive fort. And, no offense, but I didn't know you were so good at building them." He retorted, still smiling.

"It's a palace." Erza corrected him shortly.

"Please excuse me, your highness. I did not know any better." Jellal chuckled back. Being called "your highness" apparently pleased Erza very much.

"I will forgive you this time your lordship." She laughed back.

"It is my honor to be visiting the great kingdom of Fairy Tail, and an even greater honor that I should be graced with the presence of the queen of the fairies." He smiled, his heart swelling. "Thank you."

The words hit Erza deep. The soft tone he had said them with almost caused her to miss them, but the intensity with which he was looking at her could not be mistaken. She felt as a faint blush crept up on her cheeks and could see a ghost of one had already formed on his.

"Speaking of Fairy Tail, we should probably go down eventually and see what the rest of the guild is up to." She said, still blushing. "If I'm not down there, then there's a good chance that Natsu and Gray might destroy the guildhall."

"Of course." Jellal chuckled, standing up as straight as he could and offering Erza his hand. He took the dish she was holding from her as well and held the blanket aside for her as they both stepped out of the fort. He set the dishes back in the sink, vowing to wash them once they returned later. Then the two of them crept down to guildhall, cautious to avoid being seen by any unwanted eyes on their way. By the time they made it to the main building the sun was already well into the sky and Fairy Tail was bustling with excitement. Jellal, still a little bit uncomfortable in the loud atmosphere, stuck close to Erza. They wound their way over to the bar, where Makarov was sitting talking with Mira. She left him there on his own, leaving to go check up on something in town quickly. Erza told Jellal that she would be back soon and that he should try to get more comfortable around some of the other members of Fairy Tail before leaving him alone.

"Ah! Good morning Jellal!" Makarov smiled at the heavenly body mage as he finished his conversation with the barmaid. "I'm glad to see you passed the "safety inspections" from last night, though I guess if you hadn't then we'd all be locked up by now." The master chuckled. "By the look of you I'd say that Erza is taking exceptional care of her new "pet," but then again I also heard that you had a bit of a rough night last evening."

At that instant, Jellal felt a feeling he had become all too familiar with as a chill ran down his spine. Reflexes high strung enough as they were, he sprang away in a flash. The man turned in confusion at the sound of laughter. He was met by the sight of Natsu and Gray holding a now-empty bucket, which had previously been filled to the brim with ice water. The two ran off laughing, leaving Jellal standing stunned, drenched, and bewildered.

"What was that for?!" He yelled after them. Really, the more time he spent with Fairy Tail, the less it felt like he understood the guild.

"Relax, Jellal." Makarov chuckled, putting a hand on the freezing man's shoulder. "That's just their way of showing they accept you: pranking and such." The old man explained. "Now let's get you dried off before you catch a cold. Natsu!"

The fire dragon slayer ran back over to them and, understanding what the master had called him over for, immediately breathed a wave of scorching air over Jellal. The blue haired man jumped at the feeling, but was pleased to also feel that he and his clothes were now completely dried off and warm. Satisfied that Jellal was dry, Natsu ran back off into the crowd grinning.

"You're lucky they didn't show you the other way that they welcome the people they accept." Makarov smirked.

"And how is tha-"

Jellal had no time to finish his sentence, cut off by a table hitting him and sending him slamming into the floor. While his back had been turned, Natsu and Gray had managed to start a fight and it was now a guild-wide participation. Jellal got up slowly, rubbing his head and snarling at the light pain as his hand ran over the tender spot.

"What the. . ." He groaned. Another piece of furniture, a chair this time, came flying his direction. On instinct he whipped around and caught the wooden object with a punch that destroyed the chair in a shower of splinters. Quickly realizing what he had just done, he turned and began to apologize to Makarov. However before he could finish that sentence, somebody crashed into him and sent him tumbling to the floor. Jumping to his feet this time, Jellal could feel his patience beginning to waver.

"This is the power of a former wizard saint? I thought you would have been stronger!" Natsu taunted at him. Gray picked himself up from being thrown at Jellal and ran off to join another fight. The blue haired guild master turned back to Makarov, giving him a look of confusion and question.

"And this is the second way that they greet people." Makarov sighed. "It would be an insult to them now if you refused to fight with them. So then, Jellal, could you go show that brat to respect his elders?" The old man asked calmly, a smile on his face.

"With pleasure." The younger guild master smirked, a surge of confidence swelling inside his chest. And then, in a flash he was gone. Using meteor to travel over to where Natsu was, he landed a punch before the dragon slayed had known what hit him. Jellal was about to jump back over to where Makarov was when he was hit to the ground for a third time. He blinked away him dizziness to see Gajeel standing where he previously stood, laughing. Jellal quickly rolled out of the way, avoiding another attack and swinging himself back onto his feet.

The battles of magic raged on. Somehow Jellal ended up in a fight against at least five guild members, maybe more. But he could hold his own. In fact, he could excel. He was actually beginning to enjoy himself. Elfman had already been knocked out, leaving him faced with Natsu, Gray, Gajeel, and Pantherlily, who had also decided to join in on their 'training exercise.'" He next managed to knock the iron dragon slayer an the exceed out of the fight, and if he was correct he was close to winning the fight completely when. . .

"And just what the hell is going on in here?"

Everyone fighting, including Jellal, froze. Erza walked further into the guild and Jellal gulped as her eyes fell on him. He quickly released Natsu and Gray, who had been at his mercy only a few moments before, and straightened himself up. Erza walked over to the trio and stopped in front of them, glaring suspiciously.

"Would one of you three care to tell me why there is a fight going on?" She asked quietly, causing the three boys to shiver. Jellal's newfound confidence was replaced with fear. He knew that she was called the Titania, the feared _queen_ of the fairies, but he had never understood until now the weight that that title truly carried.

"Natsu started it." Gray mumbled, looking away from Erza's piercing gaze.

"No I didn't! It was Jellal!" Natsu snapped in a panic.

Erza's gaze turned to him and he shrunk under it, even though he had technically not done anything wrong.

"I didn't! I swear there was a table and then Makarov asked me but then wizard saints and these guys." He stammered confusedly. For whatever reason his brain had chosen now to be an excellent time to stop working. Embarrassed and slightly ashamed, he turned his head downwards and looked at his feet. "Sorry." He mumbled sadly.

Jellal allowed Erza to pull his head back up, forcing him to stare her in the eyes for a moment before speaking.

"You're head's bleeding. You need to get it wrapped." She said bluntly, referring to the fresh cut across his forehead. She grabbed him by his ear and began to drag him unceremoniously towards the medical wing of Fairy Tail, leaving the main guild in stunned silence aside from the sound of Erza's footsteps and Jellal's weak protests of pain as she continued to drag him away by his ear.

"How come she's never let us off that easy?" Natsu grumbled under his breath. "She's never taken either of us to the get medical treatment."

"Who cares? I couldn't care less if she took us to get treated." Gray whispered back. "That's the first time she hasn't punished us either."

". . .We should keep Jellal around more often." Natsu nodded.

Jellal eventually gave up on his objections and allowed Erza to drag him the rest of the way through the halls in silence. Luckily for them, Porlyusica had been visiting Fairy Tail to check up on another patient and agreed to look at Jellal's minor wound. Firstly, the grumpy medic chastised the man, calling him an array of names and hitting him over the head with a roll of papers. Erza felt slightly bad for him. Strangely, the grumpy old lady also accused him of stealing her apples and threatened him that if he ever did it again that she would give him a lot more than a minor cut across his head. After his initial abuse, he was examined. Porlyusica told him that he had a minor concussion, but that the wound itself wasn't that bad. She applied a salve to the cut with some gauze and wrapped it tightly to protect it from breaking open again. Finally she told him to go take a nap on one of the extra beds for at least an hour and to spend the rest of the day recovering from that room where he couldn't get into any more brawls. Erza was sent with him to make sure that he complied to all of the healer's demands.

"But I'm not tired." Jellal sighed as Erza dragged him into his room, closing the door behind them. "I feel fine." He insisted.

"_You_ were stupid enough to get into a fight. _You_ were stupid enough to get a concussion. Now the _least_ that _you_ can do is lie down quietly for an hour. You're going to need it when _you_ get punished later." Erza threatened. Jellal lay down begrudgingly and Erza sat down in the chair beside his bed. When she had told him to get more comfortable around the rest of the guild members, this situation was not what she had had in mind.

"My injury hurts." The man mumbled very quietly a few moments later, as he was pulling the covers up around himself. He was quite unsure if Erza had even heard him until her next action. The fairy queen sighed and leaned down, brushing a soft kiss on his bandages right over where the cut was. She leaned back and looked at his weary face. Despite his denials, she could the tiredness in his eyes. He hummed happily in the back of his throat at the kiss and closed his eyes.

"You're still in trouble." She reminded him.

"Haven't I suffered enough already?" He chuckled, his eyes still closed.

Sighing, Erza took pity on him. Instead of responding, she threaded her fingers into his bangs and gently rubbed his head. Jellal exhaled and let his head sink deeper into the pillow. They continued for a few moments in silence and Erza was almost convince that Jellal was asleep until she heard a sound echo up his throat. She almost burst out laughing and just choked instead.

Jellal was purring. He was _purring._

Erza leaned in closer, unsure if at first she had heard him correctly. Sure enough, the deep noise was indeed coming from him. She recognized the noise from when he was a tiger earlier, but it looked like his torment from afterwards had left some magic residue. She knew that she had no reason to worry about him as it had happened to a couple of other guild members before and would wear off soon enough, but she still couldn't help but be curious. As an experiment, she shifted the attention of her hand to behind his ear and instantly the noise coming from the sleeping male intensified. An amused smirk creeping across her face and she brought her other hand up to pet the side of his face. Erza was surprised that the noise he was making hadn't caused him to wake himself up by now. Curiously, she stopped stroking for a moment. Jellal's purring cut off and rolled over restlessly in his sleep, nuzzling at her hand in an indication for her to continue. She resumed her gentle petting behind his ear with one hand and his purring restarted. Smiling lightly, Erza turned to look out the window, still absent-mindedly rubbing Jellal's head. She continued to distractedly scratch behind his ears for the rest of the hour that he was supposed to sleep. She was jolted from her thoughts as the door to the room opened.

"How is our sleeping beauty? We heard he took a nasty bump to the head." Ultear called, stepping into the room and followed by Meredy. Jellal continued to purr contentedly even after Erza removed her hand from his head this time. The two new comers both stopped short at the sound of Jellal purring before bursting out laughing. The sudden sound caused the sleeping man to rouse and he blinked slowly in confusion at the sound reverberating from his own throat and the sudden outburst caused by his guild mates.

"What's going on?" He slurred tiredly, the purring stopping as he began to speak. Suddenly aware of the fact that the strange noise stopping at once, his face crumpled in confusion. Even the genius wizard could be slow at working things out when he was tired. "Was that. . . Was that me?" He asked confusedly, bringing a hand up to his throat and rubbing it. "What's going on?" He repeated, this time looking at Erza, still bewildered.

It took Erza a little time to explain to Jellal about the magic residue and how its effects could last up to a week. It took her much longer, however, to calm Ultear and Meredy down. Upon going down to the guild for their meeting, the two had learned about Jellal's "fight" and how he had been dragged away by Erza to get treatment. After being updated on their leader's situation and given indication on which room he was in by Porlyusica, they decided to drop by to see how he was doing and just have the meeting in his room. That could, of course, wait until after they had finished teasing him. Erza left them alone to have their meeting, telling Jellal that she would stop by later to check up on him and bring him dinner.

"I was updated this morning by some of Fairy Tail's guild members that there are still a lot of soldiers in town, but at least most of them don't seem to be taking this assignment seriously because they're either convinced that you're already gone or that you were never here. The knights stationed around the town are much more strict though. Until they leave we'll definitely have to stay here." Ultear explained to Jellal, relaying the information that she had already told to Meredy.

"We should probably stay in town a few days afterwards, just to make sure that they're gone for good." Jellal suggested.

"I'm sure you would like that, wouldn't you?" Ultear teased with a knowing smirk.

"Are you sure that you _want_ to leave?" Meredy asked bluntly, completing the cycle of steering them away from their original topic of conflict.

Jellal swallowed hard before answering, not prepared for this question to come up so soon.

"If we stay here too long, then we're bound to be found ou-"

"That wasn't my question." Meredy interrupted. "I asked, do you _want_ to stay here with Erza?"

Ultear and Meredy waited expectantly for his response, even though they already knew the answer.

"Of course I want to stay and be with Erza." He finally mumbled, turning his head away in a vain attempt to hide the blush spreading across his face. "But it doesn't matter what I want. If we stay here for too long, then we're bound to be found out and eventually captured." He groaned. "Besides, you two are my family: I can't just up and leave you guys." He added with a fond smile.

"That's really sweet of you, Jell." Meredy smiled.

"You truly are a hopeless idiot." Ultear chuckled, walking over to him and sitting on the foot of his bed. Meredy gravitated over as well, standing beside Jellal's head. "How about this then: if we weren't being hunted down by the council _and _Meredy and I _wanted_ to stay with Fairy Tail, then would you stay as well?"

"In a heartbeat." He said, a rueful smile forming on his lips. "But that's not going to happen: there's no way that the council will ever rest on my case until they either have my head on a silver platter or have me locked away from the world for the rest of my days. And to be quite honest, I'm not really fond of either of those ideas."

"So what are you going to do?" Meredy asked.

"I'm not sure yet." Jellal sighed. "But I guess we still have quite a few days to figure out our next move, so we might as well work on recovering our magic and healing up."

"You're not going to remind us to be ready to take flight at a moment's notice?" Ultear asked, referring to his usual mantra for whenever they would be staying in one area for an extended period of time.

"No. Rest. We all need to get as much of it as we can while we can." He replied wearily. "We're safe here at Fairy Tail for the time being, which is more than I can say about any of the other places we've stayed for the past eight years."

"If you _insist_ we rest, then who are we to deny your wishes?" Meredy shrugged playfully. "Speaking of rest, you look like you could use some more: after all, you have eight years worth of nights spent on guard duty to make up for." She smiled, deeply grateful for his stupid, long-termed gesture. "Feel better Jellal!" She smiled, chancing to quickly pet his head teasingly before leaving him to get some rest. Ultear stood up to follow the girl out of the room too, but stopped at the door and turned back.

"Out of all the years that we've been traveling together, I think that this is the first time that I've ever heard you say that you feel safe." Ultear noted. She turned, leaving him to mull over the words.

Out of all of the years of his life, it was the first time he could remember feeling safe.

_Of course, _he though to himself,_ he could always consider the meaning after another nap._

Just as he was closing his eyes he saw Erza slipping through the door silently. _Looks like she was back sooner than he had originally _hoped, he internally smiled. Reassured by her presence, he let his eyes droop closed all the way, hearing the soft sound of the chair beside his bed squeak as she sat down to keep watch over him.

Laxus sat alone on the train, watching as the land outside rushed by at an impeccable pace as he sped towards Era. Bored, he opened the letters that Makarov had given him to deliver and read over them once again, thinking back to their conversation much earlier that morning.

_The entire guild was empty, the sun not even up when he had arrived. The master had asked him there that early so that he could explain the mission and send Laxus well on his way so that the man could reach Era and return as soon as possible._

_"A petition signed by __**ALL**__ of the legal guild masters?" Laxus had asked, taking the note from his grandfather and peering at it incredulously. "How did you manage to pull that off? Not only __**that**__, you've got the signatures of at least four former wizard saints on here as well." Laxus observed as his eyes traveled farther down the list of prestigious names on the petition._

_ "I have my ways." The old man smiled. "Look at the other note in the envelope as well." He chuckled._

_ Laxus pulled it out tentatively and cocked an eyebrow in surprise._

_ "A letter written and signed by the king __**personally**__ asking for the pardon of one Jellal Fernandes as well as an Ultear Milkovich and and Meredy Milkovich on the grounds of their service to the kingdom, the crown, and the people. It recognizes their roles in helping to defeat the dragons at least year's dragon festival, the fact that they're responsible for stopping multiple dark guilds across the country, and the fact that they were under magic control from an outside source at the time that their crimes were committed." Laxus nodded, summarizing as he read._

_ "So here is your job," Makarov began, standing up. "You are to deliver these letters to the council in Era for the cases of our friends. They don't know I'm doing this and I would appreciate if you would refrain from mentioning it until we have heard the final verdict. This is a simple presentation of evidence: your job includes nothing more. Once you've delivered them, then come home. We'll find out soon enough what they decide."_

_ "And if they still want to execute Jellal?" Laxus asked carefully._

_ "Then we'll deal with that when the time comes." The old man sighed tiredly._

Laxus folded up the letters and returned them to their respective envelopes. He could see Era in the distance now. He took a deep breath to prepare himself. Whatever may come, life was certainly going to be more interesting around Fairy Tail: that was for sure.


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: So after the last super long chapter I was a bit worn down, so this one is much shorter. Apologies, so please accept this random side story for your appeasement._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail_

_Out of all of the years of his life, it was the first time he could remember feeling safe._

_Of course, he though to himself, he could always consider the meaning after another nap._

_Just as he was closing his eyes he saw Erza slipping through the door silently. Looks like she was back sooner than he had originally hoped, he internally smiled. Reassured by her presence, he let his eyes droop closed all the way, hearing the soft sound of the chair beside his bed squeak as she sat down to keep watch over him._

_Laxus sat alone on the train, watching as the land outside rushed by at an impeccable pace as he sped towards Era. Bored, he opened the letters that Makarov had given him to deliver and read over them once again, thinking back to their conversation much earlier that morning._

_The entire guild was empty, the sun not even up when he had arrived. The master had asked him there that early so that he could explain the mission and send Laxus well on his way so that the man could reach Era and return as soon as possible._

"_A petition signed by __**ALL**__ of the legal guild masters?" Laxus had asked, taking the note from his grandfather and peering at it incredulously. "How did you manage to pull that off? Not only __**that**__, you've got the signatures of at least four former wizard saints on here as well." Laxus observed as his eyes traveled farther down the list of prestigious names on the petition._

"_I have my ways." The old man smiled. "Look at the other note in the envelope as well." He chuckled._

_Laxus pulled it out tentatively and cocked an eyebrow in surprise._

"_A letter written and signed by the king __**personally**__ asking for the pardon of one Jellal Fernandes as well as an Ultear Milkovich and Meredy Milkovich on the grounds of their service to the kingdom, the crown, and the people. It recognizes their roles in helping to defeat the dragons at least year's dragon festival, the fact that they're responsible for stopping multiple dark guilds across the country, and the fact that they were under magic control from an outside source at the time that their crimes were committed." Laxus nodded, summarizing as he read._

"_So here is your job," Makarov began, standing up. "You are to deliver these letters to the council in Era for the cases of our friends. They don't know I'm doing this and I would appreciate if you would refrain from mentioning it until we have heard the final verdict. This is a simple presentation of evidence: your job includes nothing more. Once you've delivered them, then come home. We'll find out soon enough what they decide."_

"_And if they still want to execute Jellal?" Laxus asked carefully._

"_Then we'll deal with that when the time comes." The old man sighed tiredly._

_Laxus folded up the letters and returned them to their respective envelopes. He could see Era in the distance now. He took a deep breath to prepare himself. Whatever may come, life was certainly going to be more interesting around Fairy Tail: that was for sure._

Jellal, even after having slept through most of the day, was exhausted. So once Erza and him had been having dinner with some of her other teammates down in the guild, he managed to accidentally fall asleep at their table and had to be carried back to Erza's room by Elfman. The requip mage had stayed to watch him until Lucy came by to relieve her, telling knight to take a short break and get a slice of strawberry cake. Though she had not shown it out right, Erza had been feeling very stressed under the circumstances of the time, so when she was offered a simple hour off of Jellal-duty she eventually took it, though not without first wrestling with herself for a bit. In the end, she had trudged back down to the guild, leaving Lucy to watch Jellal even though he was out like a light on her floor. Erza initially felt bad about leaving him, but felt less worried by the fact that her friend had been considerate enough to stop by and cover for her without her even having to ask. Despite some of the other guild member's urgings she avoided the alcohol, knowing it would have adverse effects. Or at least she didn't order it out right, but that didn't stop a certain card mage from slipping a bit on to her cake before it left the bar.

"Jellal! JELLAL FERNANDES!"

Lucy rushed to Erza's door and threw it open, surprised as Ultear and Mira pushed their way into the room. Ultear seemed close to a panic and Mira seemed on edge as well.

"What's going on? Rune knights?" Lucy asked nervously as she followed the other two to the room where Jellal was sleeping.

"Worse." Ultear shivered. "Erza's drunk."

"I still have no idea how it happened." Mira said worriedly. "All I gave her was strawberry cake and everyone else in the guild knows not to give her alcohol because of how she gets."

"Now who do we know that would think of it as fun to get one of our most dangerous mages drunk?" Lucy asked sarcastically. It did not take a genius to figure out that Fairy Tail's own resident drunk had probably played a part in the scheme.

"Now's not the time!" Ultear snapped. "We need to get Jellal to calm Erza down!"

"What makes you think that he'll be able to calm her down?" Lucy asked. "No one else has ever been know to be able to."

"Call it a gut feeling." Mira answered. "Besides, what is the worst thing that could happen? She's already hurling swords all over the place and picking fights."

"Of course she is." Lucy sighed, glad that she was far away from the drunk knight as Ultear kicked in the last door keeping them from the one man who had a chance at stopping the drunken fairy queen.

"GET YOUR LAZY BUTT OUT OF BED!" Ultear commanded, hurling a shoe at the bundle on the floor for emphasis.

"Gorwy." Came Jellal's slurred response, turning away from them and snuggling deeper under his blankets.

"Oh no you don't. You have been sleeping all day and this is a matter of guild security." Ultear snapped, storming over to where he was sleeping. "Now come on!"

"Whas hapnd? Whers Erzzzaaa?" Jellal questioned blearily, finally sitting up and looking around. He raised his hands, rubbing his eyes with his palms before his fingers moved up to flatten down the mess that was his hair.

"That's actually what we need your help with." Mira smiled. "You see, someone thought that it would be a funny prank to get Erza drunk and now she's terrorizing the guild. We need you to stop her."

"Erza would never terrorize anyone." Jellal grumbled, taking this to be an ill-conceived prank. He was about to lie down again when Ultear grabbed him by the top of his head.

"Just get your butt down to the guild now and calm your girlfriend down or else I swear Meredy and I will make you regret it." Ultear threatened. Jellal blushed at the word "girlfriend," still in utter bewildered by how much had changed between him and Erza over the past few days.

"All right! I'm up!" He groaned, freeing himself from Ultear's iron grasp as he stood to his full height, towering over the girls. "How bad can drunk Erza be?"

"Ok. This is worse than I thought." Jellal admitted as he stood in the doorway of the guild. Most of the tables and chairs were in shambles, slashed apart by Erza's swords as if they were nothing. Many guild members were also lying about on the floor, worn out from fighting or simply playing dead in order to avoid Erza's wrath. The scarlet haired mage was nowhere to be seen at the moment, but upon appearing at the guild a very terrified Meredy and Juvia had come out from hiding behind the bar and quickly directed Jellal that Erza was out behind the guild, most likely still in a alcohol-induced rage. He became increasingly uneasy as he made his way to the back of the guild, none of the other members being willing to accompany him after their last encounter with their guild mate. Once outside he heard a familiar voice yelling angrily.

"I KNOW YOU'VE HIDDEN HIM HERE SOMEWHERE! TELL ME WHERE YOU TOOK HIM!"

Jellal was taken aback by the sight of Erza yelling at a large rock, not unlike the ones he frequently liked to sit on. He was about to take a step forwards when Erza raised a sword and quickly slashed "her opponent" into a pile of rubble along with a few other pieces of the scenery which had been in her wake.

"Erza?" he asked in a cautioned tone, causing the requip mage to realize his presence. She marched over to him and Jellal shrunk back a bit. Erza grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, yanking his head down so that he was face to face with her and their noses nearly touching. She squinted at him for a few seconds, as if she were unsure she recognized him. After a moment her eyes lit up brightly and she requiped her sword away in a flash.

"JELLAL! IT'S YOU! I'VE COME TO RESCUE YOU! NOW LET'S GET YOU TO SAFETY!" She gave no further explanation of what was going on, simply looking up at him excitedly.

He was so confused by what she was talking about. Had she thought that the rocks and tables had kidnapped him? However, before he had a chance to ask he felt his stomach suddenly drop away. Erza hoisted him effortlessly over her shoulder, although a little but tipsy, and trooped back into the guild.

"I can walk Erza. Really. If anyone should be carrying anyone then I should be carrying you." He tried reasoning with her. The man tried to free himself from her grasp, but could not figure out how to do so without causing any danger to the woman who was parading into the guild with him in her arms. How the smaller woman was even supporting him and his weight he did not know. His amazement was quickly replaced by embarrassment as they reentered the main hall of the guild and he passed Meredy and Ultear, both of whom looked to be holding back fits of laughter. He mouthed, "help me" as Erza unceremoniously carried him away, but they simply smiled and waved.

"What's going on? How did you get her to settle down?" Ultear asked in amazement, walking along behind the couple. In a few short minutes the man had managed to change the angry drunk to appearing to be completely placated. Jellal simply shrugged in response.

"Guild Master Housewife, it's like you're her teddy bear." Meredy smirked, sauntering up behind him and Erza as well.

"More like her Jelly Bear." Ultear smirked.

"I swear that if you two start calling me that on a regular basis. . ." He hissed. He didn't finish however. Ultear and Meredy had stopped following him and Erza once they had passed the threshold of the guildhall.

Jellal sighed in defeat as Erza carried him away against his will.

The knight carried him all the way back to her/their room before she finally set him down. Jellal would be lying if he said that his stomach was not a bit bruised from Erza's hard armor jostling against it. Tiredly, he slunk away to lie back down in his vortex of blankets at his usual spot on the floor.

"Bed." Came Erza's short command.

"Sorry?" Jellal asked, blushing. "What was that?" He asked again, even though he was certain he had heard her right the first time. He did not even know why he was blushing: they had been sleeping in such close proximity anyways it was not like sleeping on the mattress would be that much of a special difference. For whatever reason, it just felt to him like something he should not be doing quite yet.

"You're sleeping in the bed. No exceptions." She commanded, requiping into her pajamas and stepping over to the bed as well.

"But why-"

"Because I said so." She interrupted before he could finish.

"Are you that that's a good-"

"Jellal." She cautioned, glaring at him in a way that clearly stated that this one not a topic that was up for debate.

Sighing and realizing that nothing he could say would change her mind, he picked himself up and hobbled sorely over to the large bed. He groaned in content as his back cracked after he lowered himself down face first onto the mattress. He was thankful and glad to be staying with Erza at all, but he had to admit that he found her bed to be extremely comfortable after eight years of sleeping on mostly rocks. Erza immediately cuddled up close to him once he was settled, nestling herself right up against him in his shadow. In one final act she wound her arms around his chest, bringing his side right up next to hers. Jellal could not figure out why her proximity was suddenly so unnerving to him. After all, he had been sleeping right next to her for the past few nights, but for what ever reason now he couldn't keep himself from blushing._ Could it have something to do with how protective she was being over me against my "enemies,"_ he thought to himself, wrapping his arms around her in turn as he thought.

"This way they won't be able to take you from me again." The warrior murmured tiredly into his chest. "I was worried about you."

"I was worried about you too." He smiled into her hair after a few moments. He was still very confused about what had been going on inside of that head of hers. At least now he knew why the guild had a strict policy against serving Erza any alcohol at all.

When Erza woke up in her own bed, she had only a faint recollection of what had happened during her allotted "relaxation time," most of which was just the embarrassing memory of her forcibly carrying Jellal back to the apartment. Her anger flared as she realized the prank that had been pulled on her. She would find out who was responsible tomorrow, but she already had an idea of who was behind the whole mess of which caused her to make a fool of herself. She groaned internally about all the apologies she would have to say in the morning to her guild mates and the ones of Crime Sorciere. Not to mention Jellal. Of course she was a raging drunk when he was about as harmful as a puppy when intoxicated. The brush of cool night air against her bare skin brought her out of her thoughts and caused her to shudder. Absent-mindedly she patted the bed beside her, feeling around for the familiar heat from the past few nights that should have been there so that she could snuggle up against it. All she felt was the cold, empty sheets.

Her eyes shot open as she realized that the spot on the bed next to her was barren. She ripped the covers off of herself and scrambled to look over the side of the bed and around the room. Nothing. Her heart jumped into her throat and she began to panic. Her nightmare from a few nights prior was becoming a reality all too fast. Where was he?

Oh, Erza. She was so angry all this time when she was drunk because she couldn't find her Jellal! ^.^


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Hi! (waves excitedly)

_Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail_

Somehow Erza woke up in her own bed. She did not remember getting there, her last recollection of being down in the guildhall eating her cake. Her anger flared as she realized the prank that had been pulled on her. She would find out who was responsible tomorrow, but she already had an idea of who was behind the whole mess of which she made a fool of herself. The brush of air against her bare skin caused her to shudder. Absent-mindedly she patted the bed beside her, feeling for the familiar heat from the past few nights that should have been there so that she could snuggle up against it. All she felt was the cold, empty sheets.

Her eyes shot open as she realized that the spot on the bed next to her was barren. She ripped the covers off of herself and scrambled to look over the side of the bed. Nothing. Her heart jumped into her throat and she began to panic. Her nightmare from a few nights prior was becoming a reality all too fast. Where was he?

"Jellal?!" She called anxiously.

Her heart dropped as her call was answered with silence. She jumped up from her bed, ignoring the cold, and moved towards the rest of the apartment. Her hand was on the door just as she heard a small noise. She immediately tensed, turning her attention away from the door handle ghosting just beneath her fingertips and towards another door which led to her bathroom. It was now that she noticed the light on from under the door. There was no way that she could have seen it from the angle she had had when she had been sitting on her bed. She quickly crossed over to it and knocked on the door hesitantly.

"Jellal?"

Her meek question was answered by the sound of someone retching and a few seconds of silence before she heard it.

"Erza?"

Erza quickly opened the door to the bathroom and her worry changed from one kind to another. Jellal was lying on the tiled ground near the toilet. His shirt was discarded on the floor beside him and he was shuddering like he was freezing even though Erza was sure that the temperature of the room was nowhere near cold enough to be causing his symptoms. She could also see that his skin was paler than it should have been and his entire body was slick with sweat. He looked up at her woefully with bloodshot eyes before closing them again and clutching at his stomach.

"Sorry for making you think I was gone. I didn't mean for you to worry." He explained with a strangled whisper between gasps for air. Before he could go any further he quickly shot up and violently upheaved whatever contents were left in his stomach into the porcelain bowl beside him, steadying himself with one hand on either side of the rim. Erza quickly rushed to his side, dropping down to her knees beside him. She rubbed her hand in soothing circles on his back, unable to think of how to properly comfort him but wanting desperately help him feel better.

After finishing, Jellal weakly reached up and flushed the bile away. He turned to look at Erza, swaying dangerously now that he was sitting up. She quickly laid him down so that he wouldn't hurt himself, propping his head up on her leg before brushing his sticky bangs to the side and putting the back of her hand against his forehead.

"You're burning up." She frowned, pulling her hand away and looking into his weary eyes. He moaned at the loss of heat and she instantly returned her retreating hand so that her palm was flush against his temple. He sighed softly at the contact, eager for her warmth. "How long have you been ill? Why didn't you come and get me sooner?" She asked seriously.

"Started 'bout an hour ago. Didn't want to wake you because you needed sleep and I figured that you'd have a bad hangover from early this evening." He mumbled blearily.

"I don't get hangovers." She responded shortly. "And you should have woken me up any ways. If you not coming to me is about you still feeling guilty and like you don't deserve-"

"It's not." He assured her, lifting a quivering hand to place over her free one. She clutched his hand in return, so thankful that he was still with her. "I didn't want to trouble you, make you unhappy, because you are my happiness."

Erza blushed heavily at this comment, it being so uncharacteristically emotional of him, but quickly shook it away. She could be embarrassed once he was well again. "Well I'd be a lot happier if you came and told me when you need help, especially when you're in a state like this." She mumbled.

"Sorry." He apologized embarrassedly. "Go back to sleep. I'll be fine: it's probably just a because I have a concussion." He urged weakly.

"You've probably just got the stomach flu." She retorted, referring to his chills, sweats, fever, vomiting, and the fact that the usual tight filter he kept on his tongue seemed to be abandoned at the moment. It was not that she didn't appreciate his open displays of affection, but she would certainly like to hear them much better under a set of different circumstances. "Wait here." She commanded, though judging by the shape he was in, he wasn't going to be going anywhere any time soon. She gently slid his head from its position in her lap, propping it up with a towel instead before standing. He whimpered softly, barely loud enough for her to hear, as she exited back into the bedroom. She knew exactly what she needed, remembering from the time that her entire team had gotten it on a mission except for her and she had been forced to take care of everyone until they recovered. She moved quickly, rounding up some blankets to swaddle him in. She also ran to the kitchen to grab a carbonated drink and a couple of energy drinks to help soothe his stomach and keep him hydrated. She returned to the bathroom. Jellal was still lying on the floor where she had left him, watching the door for her return as if it where the only thing that mattered to him at the moment. At least this meant that he hadn't thrown up since then. Lastly she grabbed some antacid tablets from under the sink and the carried all of the things over to him.

Erza grabbed another towel from the rack and went to work on drying the sweat from Jellal's head, back, and torso. He sat up and laid down when she told him to, apparently having come to accept that she was not going to let him suffer alone even if he wanted to. She worked slowly, being careful not to jostle him around too much as she worked. Upon closer inspection she also noticed that he had a freshly blackening bruise across his abdomen. Jellal hummed in the back of his throat as she worked, leaning into her touch submissively. While he was still sitting up she coaxed him into taking two of the antacid tablets and into drinking half of a can of ginger ale mixed with some blue sports drink to try and help settle is stomach. She wrapped one of the blankets she had brought around him and he clutched at it tightly, tucking it around himself like a second skin. After laying him back down with his head propped up she retrieved a washcloth, wetting it under the sink with cold water before placing it across his hot forehead, careful of the gash which was still present on his forehead from the previous guild fight that he had participated in. He shuddered at the contact. All the while he had been completely quite, letting her do as she pleased while staring straight ahead, his eyes occasionally coming around to gaze unfocusedly at Erza every so often.

Erza sat by Jellal's side throughout the night, changing the cloth on his brow and making him sit up every so often to drink so that he would stay hydrated. After the first hour of her watch he had mostly stopped heaving his stomach and his fever had gone down, but his temperature was still far too high for her liking. He had also stopped sweating profusely, much to her relief. He still had the chills and she had to get him another blanket.

Upon returning, he turned his gaze back to her.

"I love you." He whispered.

Erza looked down at him, slightly surprised. "I love you too." She smiled softly, kneeling down to settle another blanket over him.

Jellal's hand reached up and grabbed her shoulder, bringing Erza's attention back to his eyes, which were fixed on her absorbedly. He propped himself up on one arm behind his back so that he could get a better look at her.

"I mean I really, _really_ love you. So much." He clarified. Erza was going to open her mouth to return the complement, but he shushed her gently. "I know you love me. You show me that in everything you do, in how you're taking care of me now." He smiled weakly. "But I tried to keep it hidden from you for so long about how much I did and still do care about you and that's not fair. So I need you to know I love you. I need you to know." He whispered desperately.

"I know you do. I know you do." She repeated, hoping he understood her emphasis. At her words, Jellal released her shoulder and sunk back down. He fell asleep not long after that and a little while after he was unconscious, his fever finally broke, much to Erza's relief.

Tired herself, she grabbed one of the extra blankets that she had brought into the room for Jellal and wrapped it around herself. She lay down and, after a few moments of brash uncertainty, decided that Jellal's chest would make the most comfortable pillow. Blushing furiously, she moved over and let her head rest on his left pectoral. Jellal wrapped his arm around her in his sleep, which she took to be a sign that he at least wasn't uncomfortable with the position. Yawning one last time, Erza closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Jellal woke up feeling a tad bit sore, but much better overall. It took him a second to figure out what was resting on his chest before he realized it was Erza. She was smiling in her sleep and in turn it drew a smile upon his lips. Jellal leaned down as best he could without disturbing her and placed a tentative kiss on her lips. At the contact, her eyes fluttered open and she lifted her head slowly.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you." He apologized shyly. Jellal lifted himself up as well so that they were sitting shoulder to shoulder.

"It's alright." She mumbled, wiping the sleep from her eyes. "How are you feeling today?" She yawned.

"Much better." He replied, giving her a smile in return. "Thank you for taking care of me."

"Idiot." She smiled, leaning her head against his shoulder. "As if there would ever be a time that I wouldn't help you." With that she got to her feet and offered him a hand

Grinning at this comment, Jellal lay back down and stretched his entire body before sitting back up to accept the hand that was being offered to him.

As much as Erza enjoyed watching the taunt muscles flexing and rolling beneath Jellal's skin, she picked up his shirt and threw it at him. He caught it deftly.

"Hurry up and get dressed so we can go get breakfast." She smirked.

"You're one to talk." Jellal chuckled as he padded back into her bedroom behind her. He stuffed the dirty shirt into the singular bag of stuff he owned (which Ultear and Meredy had brought to him upon their meeting at Fairy Tail) and pulled a clean one out, slipping it over his head. He turned around just in time to see Erza requip her pajamas away for her regular blue skirt and white blouse. She smirked at him in response to his exasperated look.

Grinning, and walked over to her and followed her out of the apartment and back to the guildhall once again.

After ordering at the counter, Jellal and Era joined Ultear and Meredy at their table for breakfast, the couple sitting side by side opposite Jellal's guild mates. It was relaxed between them. The guild was bustling away, almost celebratory. Even Makarov was downstairs at the moment, talking with Laxus, who had apparently returned sometime late after Erza's rampage, and some of the other members or Erza's team by the bar. Mira eventually called to them that their food was ready and Jellal jumped to his feet, volunteering to get both orders, all four plates, for their table. Erza asked if he needed help, but he told her he could get it, so she let him.

"Someone's chipper this morning." Ultear commented as Jellal ambled over to the bar to get their food. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?" The time mage asked, turning her attention towards Erza.

Erza shrugged, honestly not quite sure entirely about what had lifted the blue haired man's mood. "Nope. It's really strange." She mused. "He was up most of the night with a stomach virus. I sat with him through the worst of it."

"That is strange." Ultear agreed. "Jellal's tough. He doesn't get sick too often and when he does he always shuts himself away and insists that he deal with it on his own."

"He actually let you take care of him?" Meredy asked in amazement.

"Not without putting up as much of a fight as a man who can't move can." Erza chuckled.

"That boy can be a real idiot some times." Ultear nodded. "It's a good thing he has you."

***Meanwhile at the bar***

"Good morning Jellal! You seem to be in a good mood today." Mira smiled as the other guild master walked over.

"Good morning." He smiled back, moving to take the plates from the counter. He stopped short and looked back at Mira, a curious look in his eyes. "Mira, can I ask you a question? You're good friends with Erza, right?"

"Yep!" The white haired bar maid smiled back. "What can I help you with?"

Jellal scratched the back of his head nervously, looking down out of embarrassment. "Well I wanted to get her a gift, one that she'll really like, but I'm not entirely sure what to get her. Could you give me any suggestions?"

"You could always just get her a ring and give it to her down on one knee." Mira suggested bluntly.

"I'd like to say I'm waiting until I'm not a fugitive anymore to buy that one, but with my case then I'd never get to m-marry Erza." What had started off as a confident sentence ended with him being more flustered than he would have liked.

"Stranger things have happened." Mira shrugged.

"Still, if I could just wait a few years for the council to forget about me enough, then I'll take you up on that offer." Jellal reassured. "So do you have any other ideas for me for now?"

"Well Erza does really like getting new armors. Maybe you can go to the armor store and ask them for some better advice on what to get her." The bar maid replied thoughtfully. "I'm sorry I can't be of much more help. However, I'm sure that she'll love whatever you get her just because it will be from you."

"Thanks Mira." Jellal smiled, picking up the plates precariously and balancing them with ease as he made his way back to where Ultear, Meredy, and Erza were sitting. They each thanked him and he sat back down in his spot beside Erza, facing the back of the guild. Now used to the atmosphere, he could relax a little bit easier even though he was still not quite used to be surrounded by so many people. Looking over at Erza, head propped up leisurely with one of his arms, he wondered what the two of them would get up to today.

Unfortunately, the day would go in none of the ways her had planned.

The doors to the guild swung open and the entire hall fell silent within a few seconds. The looks of horror on Ultear's and Meredy's faces were enough to tell him what had just come through the doors, but Jellal slowly turned around in his seat anyways. Lahar, Doronbolt, and the platoon of rune knights behind the two were standing just far enough inside the guild for the doors to swing closed behind them.

"Well this certainly is an unexpected turn of events." Lahar stated as his eyes fell upon the trio of fugitives in front of him.

A/N: It was bound to happen eventually.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: There! _THREE_ chapters because I love you all. And know the anxiety of waiting too long for chapters with cliff hangers. But mostly because I love you. So. I was going to wait to post this, build up some hype and anxiety, but then I remembered something very important. I have next to no self control. Lucky you.

_Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail_

The doors to the guild swung open and the entire hall fell silent within a few minutes. The looks of horror on Ultear's and Meredy's faces were enough to tell him what had just come through the doors, but Jellal slowly turned around in his seat anyways. Lahar, Dorobolt, and the platoon of rune knights behind the two were standing just far enough inside the guild for the doors to swing closed behind them.

"Well this certainly is an unexpected turn of events." Lahar stated as his eyes fell upon the trio of fugitives in front of him. He took another step forwards with Doranbolt in tow and Jellal felt as Erza slid closer to him on the bench in response.

Lahar was scowling disapprovingly over the bridge of his nose, but Doranbolt looked more surprised than anything else. At the sight of the fugitives, the rune knights immediately moved forward as if to rush and arrest the three, but Lahar raised a hand, causing them to stop in their tracks. Many of the knights were left with a cross of either anger or confusion on their faces.

"We came here today to relay the finalized judgment decided upon by the magic council against Jellal Fernandes, Ultear Milkovich, and Meredy Milkovich to Fairy Tail, as all _official_ guilds are required to be informed, but it looks like we will be here to pass out the punishment as well." Lahar announced coolly.

Jellal knew what the judgment would be without Lahar having to pull a scroll out from his robes to read the official verdict, the whole gruesome truth. Though he had thought he would be ok with accepting death for his crimes with a calm mind before, a lot had changed within the past week and he now felt his heart fluttering madly in anticipation and contradiction. He considered pleading on the spot that Ultear and Meredy be let go, that everything was his fault as well as deny any claims that Fairy Tail had to him in order to protect the guild. That plan seemed fairly hopeless as well. He knew his sentence would be death or life imprisonment either way and that there was essentially nothing he could do anymore to make his case any worse. With that in mind, he seriously considered either fighting with the hopes that Ultear and Meredy could sneak away before he was taken down or he could make a run for it to draw the soldiers away his guild mates. He was willing to bet that he was fast enough to buy them enough time to get out of the city limits, but probably not much more than that. As if she had read his mind, Ultear leaned forward ever so slightly over the table and barely whispered loud enough for him to hear.

"Don't you even dare, Fernandes."

Before he could even begin to contemplate a retort, Lahar began reading and every eye and ear turned in attention.

"It is within ordinance that an absolute judgment be made upon fugitives Jellal Fernandes, Ultear Milkovich, and Meredy Milkovich. Between the three aforementioned, there has been accusations and proof of the following: infiltrating the magic council with intentions of bringing destruction upon the land of Fiori, disgracing the title of wizard saint, both murder and attempted mass murder. . ."

By this point Jellal had long since bowed his head in shame. Just what he needed: to have almost every single mistake he had ever made in his life thrown back in his face. Erza's hand nudged against his that was closest to her and he allowed her to intertwine her fingers with his. She squeezed his hand in gentle reassurance causing him to raise his head back up every so slightly. For her. Only would he do it for her.

"Both murder and attempted murder, being members of both dark and illegal guilds, _the attempted revival_ _of black mage Zeref_, forming an illegal guild and operating as such for an extended period of time, and finally the mass destruction of government, public, and private civilian property without compensation."

Lahar paused to look directly at Jellal. Jellal looked back at the man wearily, waiting to hear which hell they intended to put him through for his crimes.

"However,"

Jellal's head shot up straight and his brow furrowed in confusion; Meredy and Ultear sporting similar reactions,

"it has also been brought to the council's attention by Mr. Fernandes's and the Milkovichs' defendants the full circumstances of which the crimes prior stated were committed as well as their service to the kingdom, the crown, and its people."

He couldn't believe his ears. He couldn't believe that this was real and _this was happening_. He didn't even know that the three of them **had **or even got to have defendants for this trial in the first place. Jellal risked quickly turning around to glance Ultear and Meredy, who looked just as stunned as he was sure he looked, before turning to Erza with a questioning glance. To his surprise, she also looked confused. Catching his eye, she shook her head in verifying response to the silent question. Amazed, he turned back to Lahar, who had taken a pause for him to digest the words.

"And so, the council's verdict is this:

Jellal Fernandes, Ultear Milkovich, and Meredy Milkovich cannot be allowed to continue traveling around the country unmonitored as an independent guild due to the circumstances of their pasts."

Jellal's heart sank at the words. Of course. He should have known better than to expect anything but this, his head dropping as he stared down at his boots. To believe his hope had been so high only a few seconds ago. He had so many questions. Would they let him say goodbye to Erza? Would she be in big trouble because of him? After all, it was obvious that Fairy Tail had housed them now. He did not have a lot of possessions or money, but would they at least give him the respect of getting to write and have fulfilled a will?

"Though it is also due to their past upbringings and actions that has brought the council to reconsider its previous, unfinalized ruling. So there have been some adjustments made.

Firstly: Crime Sorciere, the aforementioned unofficial guild, must be disbanded effective immediately.

Secondly: All members of said former guild, Jellal Fernandes, Ultear Milkovich, and Meredy Milkovich, must join an official guild immediately. They will be given one week's time, starting today, to arrange this transition. It must be made known to the decided guild of the circumstances surrounding joining and accepted that the guild will take responsibility for any crimes committed by them in the future. Government officials will be sent at the end of the allotted time period to ensure that every part of this requirement has been carried out.

Thirdly: Should any of the three commit any crime _above_ the level of a misdemeanor, then they will be arrested and retrialed immediately. Should they attempt to run, then their case will be decided by the council without a trial

Should all of these conditions be carried out, then Jellal Fernandes, Ultear Milkovich, and Meredy Milkovich shall no longer be considered a threat to the council and will be aloud to function as normal members within society."

Lahar finished, rolling the scroll back up making it vanish within his cloak again.

"It will also be announced to the public that you three are no longer considered criminals." Doranbolt added.

"Yes, that fact will also be communicated to the masses." Lahar confirmed. With that, the rune knight dispersed, exiting the hall.

Lahar turned back at the door. "And just this _once_, only because of the council's ruling, I'm going to overlook what was going on before we got here." He said flatly, looking first at Jellal and then at Makarov before disappearing into the city once more.

Jellal was dumbstruck. He sat, mouth slightly agape and gawking at the point from where the man who had been hunting him for the past eight years had vanished, declaring him a free man. He tried to stand, to follow them and ask them again what exactly it was that had just been said to him. His legs had another idea, immediately collapsing beneath him when he tried to move and bringing him so his knees.

"This is. . ." Ultear trailed off.

"THIS IS A REASON TO CELEBRATE!" Natsu finished loudly from across the guild, finally breaking the silence. The guild followed in his action, letting loose cheers and whoops, swarming their newly freed friends. Before Jellal could fully recognize what was happening, he felt himself pulled to his feet by a sea of hands and then was promptly swarmed. The entire guild was focused on only the three former fugitives at the moment, forgetting all else as they rushed forwards to congratulate them with hugs and pats on the back. Meredy and Ultear seemed to be getting a similar treatment to what Jellal was getting: being brought to their feet and felicitated by every single member of the guild. It was nearly half an hour before everyone had settled down enough for the party to officially begin. The crowds dispersing from around him, he was glad to see Erza weaving her way through the remaining stragglers and up to him. Not stopping in front of him, she immediately grabbed him and pulled him into a hug, which he gladly returned.

After a moment, Erza pulled back and asked the completely foolish and unnecessary question that had been burning on her mind.

"So which guild are you going to go t-"

"I'm staying here." He immediately stated decisively. And then a little bit more timidly, "I would like to stay with Fairy Tail."

"So would we." Ultear added, notifying them what she and Meredy had already decided. "And besides, it's going to be a full time job making sure that you don't screw this relationship up by having a relapse."

"Trust me, that's not going to be a problem." Jellal smiled. "But thanks."

Jellal turned his attention back to Erza and bent his head down close to hers, stopping for just a moment to make sure that she showed no sign of hesitation, before pressing his lips gently against hers. _How uncharacteristically bold_, he thought to himself about the action, _but then again Fairy Tail did seemed to be filled with courageous members and being with them, being with Erza, made him feel the same_. In the background he heard some of the other guild members whistle and give catcalls, sure that Ultear had made some witty comment to Meredy and that both of them would be teasing him later. He drew back to find her blushing intensely and he could feel the familiar heat present on his own face.

"S-sorry." He mumbled, looking down nervously.

"No. It's alright: that was g-good." Erza stuttered, her face quickly turning from surprised to gracing an embarrassed smile while her face was still deeply flushed.

"Well it looks like you two are settling in nicely already."

Jellal and Erza turned to see Makarov smirking at the two of them. "If I could just borrow Jellal for a minute, as well as Meredy and Ultear, I believe it's time for them to get their Fairy Tail marks. Don't worry. I'll bring him right back to you when I'm done." The master added, causing the two mages to blush.

And so a party ensued. Of all Fairy Tail parties, this certainly had to be considered the mother of many as it lasted all day and went well into the night. Since they were no longer hiding from the law, the landlady of Fairy Hills had made it clear that she wanted Jellal out of her dorms by _that night or else. _Thankfully, Lucy notified the trio that there was an apartment open for renting in her building. Ultear and Meredy slipped away to check it, returning not over an hour later while holding the keys to it triumphantly. The former members of Crime Sorciere had all agreed to stay roommates with the shared apartment, at least for the time being. It was perfectly fine with Jellal: the apartment was more than big enough for the three of them judging by the price of the portion he had to pay for it, he was already well used to the other two girls by now since he considered them to be his only immediate family, and quite honestly he figured that he would miss them if he didn't see them around every so often. It took them a solid fifteen minutes to move all of the stuff in to the large apartment and decide on bedrooms. The place came furnished with only two beds with room for a third in a guest room, so Jellal opted to sleep on the couch until they had time to go and get him a bed of his own. When this was all settled, the three of them returned to party with the rest of their guild.

Eventually all of the members of Fairy Tail, both new and old, began going their separate ways and returning home. Even though he knew that she didn't need the protection, Jellal walked with Erza up to the steps of Fairy Hills before saying farewell to her and leaving for his own apartment.

It was once again that Erza was awoken by someone in the middle of the night, not that she had had much luck getting to sleep in the first place. However, unlike last time the knocking was not coming from her door. She slid out of bed, feeling as excited as a child on Christmas as she heard another pebble bounce off of her window. She opened the door and stepped out onto the balcony. Walking to the banister she peaked out over it and smiled at who she saw.

"Can I come up?" Jellal asked, a gentle smile forming on his face as well as she appeared. Erza nodded and watched as the man quickly pulled himself up in to a nearby tree, climbing to meet her.

"You could have just used meteor to get up here." The red head chuckled, extending a hand to the celestial body mage as he reached branch that was level with where she was. In a swift movement the blue haired man jumped down, landing beside her with ease. "There's much less of a chance that you would fall and break your neck while doing so."

"But what fun would that be?" Jellal grinned back. He took her hand in his and smiled even wider. This was good, better than he ever previously thought he deserved or would achieve. He still didn't think he was worthy of her, but now he was determined to live every day in pursuit of making her happy and that made him feel deserving enough to be happy.

The two stood in both a comfortable and awkward silence, both wanting to speak and neither wanting to break the spell as they looked up at the stars from her balcony.

"It's barely been an hour since I last saw you." She stated, her eyes moving from the stars to his face to see his reaction.

"I know." He replied. She could see a blush creeping across his face. "I tried to go to sleep, but I couldn't. Eight years on my own and after a barely a week I can't fall asleep without knowing you're beside me and will be there when I wake up. I'm afraid that if I do I will only wake up to find that it was all a dream." He chuckled sheepishly.

"I know. I feel the same." Erza replied, referring to how she had acted upon waking up to not find Jellal on the night he had gotten sick. "It's cold without you." She muttered after a moment.

Before Erza could comprehend, she felt as something heavy was dropped down on her shoulders.

"Now you won't be cold without me." Jellal responded, smiling down at Erza as she drowned beneath his cloak. "And this way we'll also be sure that when we wake up that this wasn't all a dream. Now we should both probably go get some sleep."

"Yeah. Tomorrow should be an interesting day. Plus you don't want to give Ultear and Meredy yet another reason to tease you if they found out that you came here in the dead of night." She reminded.

"See you tomorrow?" Jellal asked hopefully as he let go of her hand and climbed up on to the ledge.

"See you tomorrow." Erza smiled in conformation.

With that, Jellal jumped backwards off the ledge, activating meteor and speeding away. Erza brought the coat around her tighter and slipped back inside her cool apartment.

A/N: So I waited this long for the "free from the law" development because I felt like Jellal would have to feel free from his sins first before he would be able to accept freedom from the law. That seems reasonable, right? But really, 3 chapters over the course of 24 hours has killed me.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: oh how vain i am, the things i do for flattery

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail

The two stood in both a comfortable and awkward silence, both wanting to speak and neither wanting to break the spell as they looked up at the stars from her balcony.

"It's barely been an hour since I last saw you." She stated, her eyes moving from the stars to his face to see his reaction.

"I know." He replied. She could see a blush creeping across his face. "I tried to go to sleep, but I couldn't. Eight years on my own and after a barely a week I can't fall asleep without knowing you're beside me and will be there when I wake up. I'm afraid that if I do I will only wake up to find that it was all a dream." He chuckled sheepishly.

"I know. I feel the same." Erza replied, referring to how she had acted upon waking up to not find Jellal on the night he had gotten sick. "It's cold without you." She muttered after a moment.

Before Erza could comprehend, she felt as something heavy was dropped down on her shoulders.

"Now you won't be cold without me." Jellal responded, smiling down at Erza as she drowned beneath his cloak. "And this way we'll also be sure that when we wake up that this wasn't all a dream. Now we should both probably go get some sleep."

"Yeah. Tomorrow should be an interesting day. Plus you don't want to give Ultear and Meredy yet another reason to tease you if they found out that you came here in the dead of night." She reminded.

"See you tomorrow?" Jellal asked hopefully as he let go of her hand and climbed up on to the ledge.

"See you tomorrow." Erza smiled in conformation.

With that, Jellal jumped backwards off the ledge, activating meteor and speeding away. Erza brought the coat around her tighter and slipped back inside her cool apartment.

"JELLAL!"

The man referred to jolted awake with a sharp intake of breath. However, it was knocked out of him a few seconds later as he thrashed about under his blankets and fell to the floor with a harsh thud. Jellal groaned and glared blearily up at Meredy, who was standing behind his couch laughing. He yawned widely and unwrapped himself from the restrictive sleeping fabric before rolling into a sitting position.

"Sleep well?" The pink haired girl inquired. Her friend and former guild master only yawned at her again in response. His eyes cracked closed as he dozed slightly.

"You're usually not this sluggish in the morning, Jellal." Ultear commented, walking into the living room as well.

"It's true! I had no problem sneaking up on you: you usual catch me long before I have a chance to scare you. What's gotten into you?" Meredy asked.

"Sounds like someone's getting old." Ultear smirked.

Jellal's eyes snapped open at this and flickered to Ultear.

"I'm not old! I'm the same age as Erza!" He retorted quickly. Then his face crumpled in confusion. "Or well, I was. I am? Tenrou Jima. I don't even know any more." He mumbled to himself before turning to Meredy and Ultear for clarification.

"You're still the same age as her." Ultear sighed, rolling her eyes. How this dork had been feared by so many council members and dark guilds alike, she did not know. Jellal slowly stumbled to his feet before collapsing back face first onto the couch. Ultear walked further into the room and Meredy came around the couch, each of them settling in one of the armchairs that was facing the couch.

" 'M not old, jus tired." Came the man's muffled voice from against the couch cushions.

"Why? Did our Romeo pay a midnight visit to his fair Juliet?" Ultear smirked. The blue haired man grumbled something indistinctly in response, which the time mage took to be some kind of an excuse for an answer that was obviously yes.

"If you're going to visit her so often you might as well just go ahead and marry her." Meredy said, half joking and half completely serious. Jellal jerked up before responding.

"I already said I was going to do that la-!" Jellal quickly snapped his mouth shut and his face turned to match the shade of Erza's hair.

"I'm sorry. _What was that_?" Ultear asked dumbly, both her and Meredy's eyes as wide as saucers.

"Nothing! Shut up!" Jellal yelped in a panic, not believing that he had almost just said what he was going to say.

"Jellal, is there something you want to tell us?" Meredy asked excitedly.

"No!" He snapped back.

"If you're going to propose to Erza, I think that _WE_ at least deserve to know because we **broke you out of jail** **and that constitutes some compensation**."

"Jellal! This is so exciting!" Meredy chirped.

"Well I'm not going proposing she marry me to her when I see her tomorrow if that's what you're getting at!" the man snapped, massaging the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. "I'm just not denying that it won't happen eventually either." He decided to bring up a new topic before they could go any further on the subject.

"So do you two want to go to the guild to get breakfast?" Jellal asked. "It's not like we have any food in the fridge yet. . . Or a fridge yet for that matter."

"Actually we were thinking of going out to eat. You know, now that we can without being arrested and all." Ultear countered. "We heard that there's a really good breakfast and brunch place right in the city square. Do you want to come?"

"I'm going to pass this go around." Jellal answered, shaking his head. He knew that just because he was not longer going to be pursued by rune knights at every turn most certainly did not mean that all of society was immediately going to forgive him.

"Suit yourself." Ultear shrugged, standing up. "We'll see you later at the guild."

"Say hi to Erza for us." Meredy smiled at him before following Ultear out of the room and subsequently out of their apartment. Jellal stood up and stretched before digging around in his bag for a clean pair of clothes. Finding that he was dangerously close to being out of them, he threw a load of clothes into the washer (which had thankfully come in the apartment) before moving to leave the apartment for the day as well.

Though he was not keen on traveling right into the heart of the city just yet, Jellal was also not above taking a short detour in order to pick up a quick gift on his way to the guild as he turned down a recently familiar street.

After paying the nice man at the bakery and taking his, soon to be Erza's, box of strawberry cake Jellal was quickly back on his way to the guild. Yet he did not make it to the guild without one other _hiccup_ in his adventure. It happened as he was passing the small plant place when the little old shopkeeper smiled and waved him over. He walked over leisurely, curious as to what the old woman would have to say.

"You're Erza's handsome friend for the other day, aren't you?" She smiled. He nodded in response. "You're going to ruin your breakfast if you at that this early in the morning you know." She said as she caught sight of the cake box under his arm.

"It's not for me. It's a gift for Erza." He explained.

"I thought she said you two weren't dating." The old woman smiled knowingly.

"We weren't, but now circumstances are. . . different now, so we are." Jellal smiled, his heart swelling upon being reminded of his situation as he reflected back on his life from the past few days.

"Good." The old woman nodded decisively. "So what's your name? I don't think I caught it the last time you two were here."

"Jellal. It's Jellal." He responded.

"Jellal: such an striking name." The woman mused. "You can call me Oma."

"It was good to see you Oma, but I should probably be getting to delivering this." Jellal grinned, patting the box under his arm.

"Oh! Wait just a moment!" Oma commanded. Jellal stayed where he was, frozen by curiosity as the old woman bustled back into her shop. A few moments later she returned, a large bouquet of roses in her hands.

"Take these to Erza too, will you?"

"How much do I owe you for them?" Jellal asked, pulling his wallet from his pants.

"Nothing for you dear. You can give them to Erza with the cake." Oma said, waving for him to put his wallet away.

"Really. I have plenty of money and you've been so kind to me: I can't just take these from you." Jellal insisted.

"Then at least take one." The old woman sighed in exasperation, pulling a single rose out from the bouquet and offering it to him.

"I really can't take this without feeling guilty." Jellal explained uncomfortably. "Please just let me pay."

Oma sighed. "If you must _insist_ upon paying me, then can you come help me out in the shop next week. I'm getting some heavy shipments in because festival time is coming up and I'll need someone strong to move them for me."

"It's a deal!" Jellal nodded gratefully, finally accepting the rose that was being forced onto the top of the cake box. Waving goodbye and promising to return when Oma got her new shipments in, Jellal finally set off for the guild once again. He made it through the doors without anyone else calling out to him, much to his relief.

Looking around the guild, he realized that Erza wasn't around yet. He was about to turn around and walk out of the guild to go search for her, but Laxus caught his eye and waved him over to the bar where the blond haired man was sitting.

"All right Mystogan, here's the deal." Laxus said as he sat down.

"It's Jellal." The blue haired man corrected for the umpteenth time, sitting down beside the dragon slayer and setting his gifts down on the counter in front of him. He was sure that Laxus knew exactly who he was and just kept using the wrong name on purpose to annoy him. Well, it worked.

"Right, right. Now Mystogan," Jellal rolled his eyes a smile cracked across Laxus's face, but then his face turned solemn. "I know that I don't need to tell you of all people this, but it's a Fairy Tail tradition, so I have to." Jellal nodded in understanding and for the other man to continue. "If you ever hurt Erza again by leaving because you think "you're not good enough" or some of that crap about atoning for your sins, then I swear that I will find you, beat, yes literally, _beat_ some sense into you, and then drag your sorry ass back to her at which point you will apologize and beg for forgiveness as if your life depends on it because it _will_. If she decides to keep you after that, then-"

"That is _never_ going to happen." Jellal said seriously, cutting Laxus off because he had heard enough. "I am _never_ going to leave Erza like that again. The only way I'll be leaving her side is if she sends me away. We are at a complete understanding."

"Good." Laxus smiled. "That's the kind of strong answer I wanted to hear from you Myst." The thunder dragon slayer got to his feet and was about to walk away, but he stopped, thinking for a moment before quickly turning back to Jellal. "And if you could propose to Erza by the end of the month, that would be great. I've got 15,000 jewels riding on this and I could really use the favor buddy." And with that hanging in the air Laxus walked, leaving Jellal a mess.

"W-WHAT?! Come back here and explain!" Jellal yelled after the other man, his face flushed. Laxus only chuckled in response as he walked out of the guild. Jellal huffed and set his head down on the counter.

"Something the matter, Jellal?"

He looked up to see Mira watching him from over the bar.

"Nah. I'm just waiting for Erza to get here." He replied in a bored tone.

"Well it looks like you're in luck." The barmaid smiled, looking over him at the guild doors. Jellal lifted his head, turning to see the woman he had been waiting for had just stepped into the guild and was looking about. He could see that she had his coat folded in her armsHer eyes landed on him and she made a beeline for him. Jellal sat up straight on his stool as she approached.

"Good morning." Erza smiled at him, holding his jacket back to him.

"Good morning yourself." Jellal responded. "I uh brought you something." He said, slightly nervous that for whatever reason she wouldn't like what he had brought her. In response she only smiled wider and looked at him excitedly.

"You didn't have to do that." She blushed.

"I know. But for you I wanted to." He responded awkwardly. He swore he heard Mira whisper 'so cute' as the white haired mage floated away down the bar (but still within earshot he noticed).

He pulled the box from the bar and, fumbling slightly, held it out to her.

"The rose is from Oma." He said nervously. "And from me. Well, Oma gave it to me to give to you from me, so. . ." He trailed off abashedly. "And cake from that place we went to on our first day out togeth-" he was cut off as Erza threw her arms around him, bringing him into a bone crushing hug. He hugged her back with one arm, the other supporting the cake.

"Jellal, you're the best!" Erza grinned as she pressed her face into his shoulder.

"It's nothing. Really." He choked out. Erza released him and he was not at all surprised when she wanted a slice of the cake for breakfast. He tried to gently dissuade her, but in the end she got her way and he got his omelet. They ate and chat idly, moving from the bar to a table to avoid being eavesdropped on by Mira as easily.

"So what do you have planned today?" Erza asked him, pushing her clean plate away.

"I was thinking of going and standing in the middle town. Maybe climb a statue and yell that I'm king of the world." He quipped. "All the usual things that recently cleared felons do." Erza rolled her eyes at him, but also gave him a smile which made his heart soar.

"So what are you up to today?" Jellal inquired.

"Master Makarov said that we may be getting some visitors from the Blue Pegasus today, so he asked all the s-class mages if they could stay around, just in case we are needed for anything." Erza explained.

"That sounds interesting." Jellal remarked.

"Not really. They probably won't need me and I'll have to put up with Ichiya, assuming it's very likely that they bring him." Erza sighed, massaging her forehead. She was getting a headache from thinking about it already. Jellal nodded compassionately, remembering seeing briefly how the other mage acted around Erza the previous year.

"Want me to ask Mira to cut another slice of cake for you?" Jellal offered. Erza looked up at him timidly and nodded. He smiled, grabbing the box off the table, and placed a quick kiss on her forehead before striding over to the bar.

Erza stood up to go join Jellal at the bar, but was interrupted as the one she was hoping to avoid came waltzing into the guild followed by the trimen. Ichiya immediately moved to greet her.

"Erza! It's so wonderful to smell you parfum aga-!" Ichiya stopped short and grasped his nose. "What is this? Could this be? You smell of another!"

Erza was confused by his words for a minute before remembering that she had slept in Jellal's coat. Not to mention had worn it around for most of the morning until she left her apartment, folding it up for its return to its master. She had to admit that she was a little sad to give the article of clothing back: even though she certainly did not have the sense of smell that Ichiya seemed to possess, she had noticed that the jacket smelled like Jellal it was a warm reminder to her when she woke up. Looks like it served another purpose as well.

"You. . . You smell like him." Ichiya stated as he caught sight (and smell) of Jellal at the bar.

"Of course she smells like him." Natsu sighed as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, walking over to join their conversation. "He's her _mate_." He scoffed.

"Her _what_?!"

"He's my _boyfriend._" Erza correct, slapping Natsu. "I borrowed his jacket, which is why I smell like him." She explained in a huff.

"Yes. That's what I said: he's your mate." Natsu agreed.

"Natsu, no. That's not the same thing." Erza sighed.

"Natsu, yes. That is the same thing, actually." The dense dragon slayer argued.

The two continued to banter while Ichiya continuously tried to hit on Erza.

***at the bar***

Jellal was standing patiently at the bar as he waited for Mira to return with Erza's cake. Laxus was slumped in one of the stools eating his breakfast.

"Jellal, I believe _your woman_ is in need of some attention." Laxus drawled.

"Erza is not something that I can _own."_ Jellal corrected. "She is perfectly capable of handling herself."

"Yes, well it is generally customary that when I man is dating a woman that he is responsible for stopping other men from _flirting_ with _his woman_, but if you would rather go ahead and let Erza take care of this on her own, then please, be my guest."

Jellal had whipped around at the point Laxus had said flirting and was about to rush back over when she delivered a swift kick to the face of the man who had been ogling her. The blue haired wizard turned back to his companion, smirking proudly. Laxus only pointed a finger back behind him in response and he turned to see that the man was back again already and apparently unable to take a hint. Jellal huffed out of irritation. Mira returned with his cake and he quickly thanked her before taking it.

"I hope this won't be a common thing. . ." Jellal grumped to Laxus as he turned and stalked off toward where Erza and the man were standing. Erza's back was to him, so she didn't notice his presence until he was standing right besides her, towering over everyone in the conversation. He felt slightly smug as Erza pressed her shoulder against his. Casting a quick glance at her first for approval, he draped his free arm over her shoulders casually, discretely pulling her side flush against his.

"You! You are the man Erza smells like!" The short mage with orange hair accused. This comment confused Jellal, but Natsu interrupted before he had time to mull it over.

"Jellal! You're Erza's mate, right?" Natsu asked excitedly.

"Her _mate_?" He responded, flushing.

"Boyfriend. Natsu apparently thinks that boyfriend and mate are equivalent." Erza explained to him.

"Ah!" Jellal sighed. "Yes, Natsu. Erza and I are a couple." He answered decisively.

"I want to challenge you for my honey's hand." Ichiya piped up at Jellal. The taller man's eyes slid over to the older mage.

"Erza isn't a prize that can be won." He replied coolly. "It's up to her who makes her happy." Ichiya scrutinized him for a moment before making his decision.

"You will be good for Erza. You make her happy. I will concede her to you." The short man announced before walking off to find his other guild members and help them hit on women.

"No! I wanted to fight!" Natsu shouted, accidentally hitting the cake that Jellal was holding in the process.

Jellal felt a chill go down his spine as he saw the look Erza gave Natsu. In the next second the dragon slayer had been thrown across the guild. Erza told Jellal that she was going to go get another slice of cake from Mira and stalked off towards the bar. Ultear and Meredy walked into the guild and immediately went to questioning Jellal about what they had missed.

"Looks like someone had an exciting morning." Ultear commented.

"You're supposed to eat the cake, not wear it, Jell." Meredy smiled. "If you need lessons, I've sure that Erza would love to help you."

"No, it's great." I love being covered in cake." Jellal groaned sarcastically.

"Erza could always just eat it off you. I'm sure it tastes just about the same." Ultear smirked as the man across from them kicked the table sharply before he slid form the bench to his feet.

"Jellal where are you going?" Meredy called after him.

"To take a shower!" He called back testily, not bothering to look back as he did, as if it would keep them from seeing the intense blush on his face.

When Erza got back from the bar, she could not figure out why on earthland that Jellal had decided being covered in cake was suddenly so unbearable or as to why Ultear and Meredy were laughing so hard.

Ultear and Meredy got up to leave shortly after Jellal, claiming that they needed a little bit of down time in their apartment after the loud antics of the guild. Before the two left they invited Erza to come over and see their new apartment if she liked, an offer which she gladly agreed to. Ultear was fairly worn out from her day at the guild and once they were inside the apartment the time mage grabbed a newspaper from the coffee table and sunk down into her armchair in the living room. Erza was perfectly fine with Meredy showing her around the apartment, which really was a steal for the price they were paying on it.

"Come on. Our apartment has a . . . strange noise I think you should hear. We should be able to hear it clearly from the hallway." Meredy explained, pulling Erza after her. Curiously, the knight followed. Meredy put a finger over her lips in indication for Erza to be very quite as they listened to the sound of rushing water. And then Erza heard it.

Jellal was singing in the shower. Jellal was singing _cheesy pop culture_ _songs_ in the shower. Jellal was singing _cheesy pop culture_ _songs_ in the shower and he sounded _**good**_**.**

"He'll never sing in front of Ul or me, but he does it a lot in the shower because he thinks we can't hear him." Meredy whispered, as if there was even a chance of the man in question hearing them over the sound of the water and his own reverberating voice.

The two girls listened for a few minutes, long enough to hear Jellal transition into another song, before finally going back to the room that they had originally been in. Shortly after returning to the living room they heard the sound of the shower shutting off and Jellal's singing was brought to an end, much to Erza's secret disappointment. It was not long until they heard the padding of feet coming from down the hall.

"Hey Meredy, Ultear have either of you seen my-"

Jellal stopped dead as he walked into the room and spotted Erza. The three girls fell silent as well. Ultear chuckled as she saw Erza's face go deep red. Jellal was covered by nothing except a towel that was wrapped loosely around his hips and the requip mage was certainly getting a feast for the eyes.

"You've been spending too much time with one of my mother's old students." Ultear smirked, barely lifting her eyes from the paper in front of her before returning to her reading. "At least have the decency to wear clothes while we have guests over."

"Uhm. . . Hi Erza. I didn't know you were here." Jellal stammered, blushing.

"Y-yeah. Ultear and Meredy invited me over to see yall's new p-place." Erza stuttered in response, flicking her eyes away from him to keep from staring.

"So what did you need Jellal?" Meredy asked, entirely unfazed by the fact that he was most likely completely naked beneath his towel.

He stood flustered for a moment before remembering what he had originally entered the room for. "Have either of you seen my clothes? I left them outside the bathroom door, but they were gone when I got out."

"They smelled like wet dog." Ultear replied dryly, not looking up from her newspaper.

"I just washed them this morning!" Jellal retorted exasperatedly.

"Did you use some secret soap that I didn't know we owned? Because Meredy and I didn't come home with the washer soap until this afternoon." Ultear bantered.

Jellal frowned._ How could he have been so stupid?_

"So why are they now?" He begrudgingly asked impatiently. His ears were beginning to burn as he felt Erza's eyes occasionally flicker over his form.

"They're in the dryer. They should be just about done by now." Ultear responded calmly.

Jellal grumbled his thanks and another apology to Erza before stalking off to find his clothes. He pulled the dryer open and quickly grabbed a shirt and pants from the spinning vortex of his wardrobe before slamming the machine shut again so it could finish its job. He shuddered uncomfortably as he felt that the clothes were still slightly damp, but he threw them on anyways. Damp clothes would certainly be less uncomfortable than walking around in nothing but a towel while Erza was over. After double-checking his appearance, he slung his towel over his neck and walked back to the sitting room. Much more presentable now, he walked over and took a seat on the couch next to Erza. They sat in awkward silence for a few moments before Ultear finally spoke up.

"You kids just pretend we aren't here." Ultear said from behind her paper. Jellal and Erza blushed.

"So how long have you been here?" Jellal finally asked shyly, still slightly embarrassed from his earlier flub. Hopefully nothing else would go wrong. . .

"I've been here for a little while." Erza responded. "By the way, you sing really well." She complemented, blushing and looking down.

Jellal's eyes bulged in surprise and he blushed even deeper.

"You heard that?!" He yelped, beyond embarrassed. He knew that he had a fairly decent voice, but that didn't mean that he still wasn't self conscious about it. Erza looked back up and nodded at him in confirmation.

"You two are more awkward than a pair of teenagers." Ultear grumbled.

"I didn't know you were in to that kind of music." Erza teased, referring to the fact that he very obviously was not a fan of the tunes he had been singing.

"I'm not." He grumbled. "I hear them and they get stuck in my head. The only way for me to get them out is if I sing them in shower."

"You do know that the world wouldn't end if you sang _outside_ of the shower ever now and again?" Meredy smiled.

"No. I'm quite sure it would." Jellal said cynically.

"I wouldn't mind hearing you sing again." Erza commented. Jellal turned to her and blushed.

"Well _maybe_ I could sing outside of the shower every now and then." He revised.

"Or she could just join you the next time you take a shower."

"Ultear!" Jellal snapped. By now it was impossible for the man to turn any more red and the woman beside him was nearing a similar ultimatum.

"I'm just spitting out ideas here."

"Nope. Nope. _Nope. _We are _not _having this conversation." Jellal declared decisively and in a slight panic. Erza had been quiet the whole time, too flustered to say anything. He took her hand in his and stood up.

"Where are we going?" Erza finally asked as she followed him out of the apartment.

"Anywhere but here." Jellal responded.

Without any true destination, somehow the couple ended up wandering to the yard of Fairy Hills, more specifically beneath the tree which Jellal had climbed to visit Erza the previous evening. He pulled himself up onto one of the lower branches before offering Erza a hand to help her up as well. They sat as talked while the sun set before them, each just happy to enjoy the other's company.

"They mean well you know." Erza said to him.

"I know, but did _you_ want to have that conversation with my family?" he ask incredulously.

"Heck no!" She laughed. "I'll never be ready to have that conversation!" Erza looked over to see a curious look on Jellal's face that she did not recognize and she hurriedly continued. "I mean with them! Not that I'm saying I'll never have that conversation! Not that I'm saying I'm ready to have it now, it's just-" She stopped and looked back over at the sound of Jellal's deep laugh. He grinned widely at her, apparently amused by how flustered she was making herself. "Shut up!" She snapped, punching him playfully on the arm. Unfortunately it was not as soft as she intended and was just enough to set Jellal off balance, as he was already laughing fairly hard. His eyes shot open in surprise as he slipped out of the tree in in slow motion before Erza's eyes. Realizing her mistake, she shot forward and grabbed his hand. Though despite his lithe an fit build, he was too heavy for her.

The mages landed in a heap on the grass below. Thankfully the fall had not been that far to begin with and Erza's landing was cushioned by Jellal. She rolled off of him and stood up shakily, extending a hand to help him up. She was surprised when he didn't take or didn't make any move to get off his back. Instead he seemed much more intrigued by the emerging stars above them.

"See something you like?" Erza asked, laying back down beside him and using one of his arms as a pillow.

"Well I _am _a _heavenly body._" He retorted. "Don't worry though," he said turning to look her straight in the eyes, "There are plenty of things I see down here that I like as well." He taunted in a suave voice, with a seductive smirk plastered to his face. He burst out laughing once again as Erza's face flushed red.

"Have you no shame?" She said, rolling her eyes. Then in a voice equivalent to the one he had just used on her, "Oh, but from what I saw earlier you certainly have mastered "heavenly body" magic if I do say so myself." It was Jellal's turn to blush as Erza laughed.

"Is that flirtation I detect Ms. Scarlet?" He retorted lazily.

"It might be Mr. Fernandes." She challenged.

"Oh just shut up and kiss already!"

The words shocked both mages sat up and whipped around in the direction of the noise. It took them a moment to spot it, but then they saw. Ultear and Meredy (who was the one that had yelled at them) were on the roof of Fairy Hills and watching the couple eagerly. Jellal and Erza immediately jolted away from each other and blushed.

"Stop following us!" Jellal yelled in irritation.

"Make us!" Ultear yelled back.

Before Jellal had time to respond, he was blinded by a bright light beside him. A second later Erza reappeared, wielding her heaven's wheel armor. Jellal watched in awe as a storm of swords flew around them expertly.

"What was that?" Erza asked dangerously.

Before she had even finished her sentence Ultear and Meredy were gone. Sighing, she requiped the swords away.

"Sorry about that." Jellal laughed out of embarrassment, scratching the back of his head. "I should probably be getting home soon.

"Yeah." Erza agreed. "I'm pretty worn out from today."

Jellal walked with her across the field and up to the stairs of Fairy Hills like he had done the previous night. Glancing around quickly to make sure that they were in fact alone, Erza leaned up and quickly dropped a kiss along Jellal's jaw. As she pulled back, Jellal leaned forwards, placing a lingering one on her lips. Over the past few days she had become addicted to the feeling of his lips against hers, addicted to the way it stirred up butterflies in her stomach and warmth in her heart. He pulled away and she felt frustrated by the loss of having him so close to her. It did not last long though because the next thing she knew Jellal was pulling her into a hug. She smiled warmly into his shoulder.

"Thanks for the cake." She repeated.

"For you? Anything." Jellal promised. "Breakfast again tomorrow?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world."

A/N: Because Jellal is a punk and not able to accept anything for free. Ever. And though she won't say it outright, Erzy-boo likes when Jellal goes into possessive boyfriend mode. ;D plus those two are such dorks about their relationship when other are around; they find it so much easier to intimate and express their feelings when they're alone together


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail

"Sorry about that." Jellal laughed out of embarrassment, scratching the back of his head. "I should probably be getting home soon.

"Yeah." Erza agreed. "I'm pretty worn out from today."

Jellal walked with her across the field and up to the stairs of Fairy Hills like he had done the previous night. Glancing around quickly to make sure that they were in fact alone, Erza leaned up and quickly dropped a kiss along Jellal's jaw. As she pulled back, Jellal leaned forwards, placing a lingering one on her lips. Over the past few days she had become addicted to the feeling of his lips against hers, addicted to the way it stirred up butterflies in her stomach and warmth in her heart. He pulled away and she felt frustrated by the loss of having him so close to her. It did not last long though because the next thing she knew Jellal was pulling her into a hug. She smiled warmly into his shoulder.

"Thanks for the cake." She repeated.

"For you? Anything." Jellal promised. "Breakfast again tomorrow?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world."

When Jellal woke up, he was immensely looking forwards to spending his day relaxing around the guild and talking with Erza. He scolded Ultear and Meredy quickly before leaving the apartment to meet Erza. It was to his surprise that when he got to the guild that most of the members where present so early in the morning and more than that, they had already taken jobs and were rushing around to be off as soon as possible. It took him a few minutes to get to Erza through all the commotion. He was slightly disappointed when he learned that she had been specifically requested for an important s-class mission and was going to have to leave that day and not be back for at least a week. She still had time to eat breakfast with him though, which he was more than thankful for. They chose to eat outside behind the guild because the weather was nice and the hall was too crowded at the moment for them to sit and eat without constantly being hit by passersby. After eating, they chose to stay outside and look out over the lake located there.

"So where are you headed on your mission?" Jellal asked finally.

"All the way out in the Warss Forest, right near where Cait Shelter used to be located." Erza informed him. "Traveling all the way out there and back will probably take more time than the actually mission will. I should probably get going soon so I can get a good start on today. That way I can accomplish this mission as quickly as possible."

"Yeah, I know." Jellal sighed. "I still wish I could come with you though."

"You know that you have to stay here so that you're here when the council sends people to come check up on you." Erza reminded him.

"I know, but that doesn't mean that I still don't wish that I could with you."

"You'd have to be an s-class before hand anyways. Still, I don't doubt that you'll be able to pass the next upcoming one." Erza smiled at him.

"Thanks." He smiles back.

They stand in silence for a bit, simply savoring each other's company before Erza had to depart. He opted to tentatively pull her into a hug after a few minutes, one which she eagerly returned.

"You had better still be here when I get back." She whispered to him. He bowed his head down to the crook of her neck, deeply inhaling her scent before lifting his head slightly to look her in the eyes.

"I will be." He promised, looking deeply into her eyes. "I'm not going anywhere."

And so those were the last words Jellal got to speak to Erza before she departed.

Jellal had thought that he could easily handle being away from Erza for a week. Oh how wrong he was. After all of the time he had recently been spending with Erza, it seemed to be torture to him to be separated from her. The week could not pass quickly enough for Jellal. With the guild mostly empty, he ended up spending most of his time at Oma's shop either helping her with moving things around or by simply drinking tea with her and keeping her company. The time he spent there helped him take his mind off things at least for a bit, but in the end of it all he was missing Erza sorely. Occasionally he would space out as he replayed memories of her in his head. He also found that he had trouble sleeping and more than once he got up in the middle of the night to stand outside her window in the hopes that she returned in the night.

At one point Natsu, who had returned from his first mission and was going to be leaving for another mission soon, had decided to play a prank on Jellal while he still had the chance. Natsu had come running to Oma's shop and yelled at Jellal that Erza was home. The Heavenly body mage was halfway to the guild before Oma could finish telling him to go to her. In a stupidly dangerous act he had used meteor to warp to the guild within well under a minute and almost broke the doors down as he thundered inside. Everyone who was left in the guild looked at him like he had gone mad. When he asked where Erza was and that Natsu had told him that the requip mage was back, Mirajane had to break it to him gently that Erza actually wasn't back and that Natsu had only played a stupid prank on him. Jellal stood frozen in shock until the fire dragon slayer appeared. When Natsu entered the guild, laughing his tail off about the whole thing, Jellal promptly spun around and punched him in the gut (though he was still carefully to hold back so as not to cause any serious injury). He had gone back to Oma's after that. It started to rain a bit later, which most likely put an end to any more customers that they would have that day and Oma had no more boxes for him to move at the moment, so Jellal ended up sulking for the rest of the day while staring out the window. Oma quietly slid him a cup of tea, causing him to smile weakly and thank her, as well as apologize for running out so quickly earlier.

Near the beginning of the weak, Meredy and Ultear had teased him slightly about his separation anxiety, but as the days progressed they quickly stopped as they realized how bad of a shape he was sinking into. Instead they turned to encouraging him by trying to keep his mind off Erza or, for when it was, by assuring him that she would return soon. He was either grouchy or irritated most of the time and they noticed that he tended to try and avoid them for this matter, because he did not want to indirectly take his frustration out on them.

One particular day, Oma had gotten a large shipment of boxes in which meant that Jellal had plenty of work to do and keep his mind semi occupied. Oma was busy directing around in the back of the shop and telling him where to put things when they heard the bell over the front door of the shop ring.

"Grandmother! I came to help you move those boxes! You were getting them in this week, ri-" The voice fell short as its unseen speaker stepped into the room.

Jellal almost dropped the box he was holding out of surprise as Lahar stepped into the back of the shop. The former fugitive quickly righted himself and set the box down where Oma had directed him before turning back to the scene before him.

"Lahar! I didn't expect you to be here!" Oma smiled, hobbling over to the man who was much taller than herself and holding her arms open in indication of a hug. The council member had to bend over to hug the old woman properly, blushing embarrassedly as he made eye contact with Jellal upon standing up once again.

"Yes, well I had figured I would stop by and help you unpack your merchandise since I know you always get a lot of pots and things in during this time of the year, but it would seem that you found a helper." Lahar replied. Jellal was unsure if he had even heard it, but for a moment he thought he heard a hint of dejection in the other man's voice.

"Oh, yes! This is Jellal, sweetie." Oma chirped, dragging her grandson over towards Jellal. "He came by here last week so I asked him if he could help me. I hope that doesn't bother you. I know that you're a big shot council member and I didn't want you to have to take time off of something important to help me move some silly boxes."

"I'll always have time to come and help you move silly boxes." Lahar muttered.

"You're so sweet dear! Here, if you and Jellal work together, then you can be done twice as quickly. You know what to do by now and he seems to have the hang of it, so I'm going to go make you boys some tea for when you're finished." Oma stated, bustling away and leaving the two, obviously very uncomfortable, men to finish moving the boxes.

"Fernandes." Lahar addressed coolly.

"Lahar." He nodded back, moving to pick up another box.

Oma was right in believing that the two men would finish moving the boxes in half the time. They worked quickly, neither of them eager to talk to the other much and both choosing to absorbed themselves in the work before them. Once they were done, Jellal tried to excuse himself politely, not overly ken on being around his former pursuer, but Oma insisted that he, as well as her grandson, stay for tea.

"I think you two could be really good friends if you got to know each other," the old woman smiled, pouring them each a cup of tea before leaving the two alone as she bustled off to help a customer in the front of the shop. The two men sat in silence. Jellal opted to stare into the depths of his tea as if it would magically transport him away from the disaster of a situation.

"In case you were wondering who turned you in, it wasn't Oma." Lahar finally said after a while.

"I know." Jellal responded in a level tone. "She's a very sweet lady." He complemented. Lahar nodded in agreement.

"So may I ask why you are helping my grandmother move boxes?" Lahar asked curiously as he took another sip of his tea.

"She wanted me to take a rose to Erza last week, but wouldn't let me pay her any real money for it." Jellal chuckled fondly, remembering how excited Erza had been that day. "She finally let me pay for it by working for her this week to help move boxes."

"So you and Erza are together then?" Lahar reckoned.

"Y-yeah." Jellal mumbled, looking away. "But Erza's away on an S-Class mission right now that she was requested for by a previous council member." Jellal sighed glumly. "Actually, now that I think about it, most of the guild is out on missions that they were requested for specifically." Jellal realized, his brow furrowing with confusion. "Strange, then again, it could just be normal in Fairy Tail for all I know."

"You mean that you don't know why most of your own guild is out on special missions?" Lahar asked incredulously. It was obvious from his tone that the council member did.

Jellal shrugged. "Did they break something important and now have to pay it off?" He asked curiously.

"They have to pay something off, but they didn't break anything this time." Lahar responded. "They're paying compensation for signatures."

"Signatures?" Jellal was becoming more and more confused as this conversation went on.

"Fairy Tail was the one who stepped in for your defense, showed up at the council with a petition for your release with over five hundred prestigious signatures and a letter from the king to spare. Though I'm sure many people agreed with the ruling after hearing your full story and signed for that reason, I'm also sure that now many of them will ask Fairy Tail for a favor or two in return seeing as the guild's move was a success. That, Fernandes, is why most of the guild, including your _girlfriend_, are all out on missions." Lahar explained.

"They did that for me?" Jellal asked, stunned.

"Well, for you and the rest of your guild, yes. They never mentioned it to you?" Lahar asked, quirking an eyebrow in surprise.

Jellal stood up suddenly, a mysterious look on his.

"Sorry, but I think I have to go." He mumbled. "There's something I have to do." He set his teacup back down, nodding quickly at Lahar and stopping to briefly explain some unheard thing to Oma before running off into the streets. The council member was left sipping his tea, wondering what on earth the mage was up to now. Knowing Fairy Tail mages, he could only assume that it would be something brash and dangerous or just down right over the top.

"Hey Jellal! How was work?" Meredy asked as the blue haired man slammed the front door to their apartment shut.

Not saying a word, he simply nodded politely as he passed his two roommates and continued straight to his room. There was the firm click of the door as it closed behind him.

"Being a grouchy jerk isn't going to bring Erza back any sooner you know!" Ultear called after him, but they did not hear him give any response.

"Is Jellal going to be alright, Ul? I mean, he made it the seven years, but these past few days he's seemed really upset." Meredy noted.

"He'll be fine." Ultear assured. "I swear, he's _way_ worse than when you where a teenager." Ultear sighed. Meredy only chuckled in response and went back to helping Ultear with dinner.

It was a quiet day in Fairy Tail, most of its members still being out on missions. A few, such as Laxus, had already completed their missions and were lounging around the strangely quite guild, either enjoying the relaxing peace in quite or simply waiting for something more interesting to happen. Makarov was downstairs today. He noticed something curious.

"Mira, where are all the requests from the request board? It's been completely empty for days." The master asked, hopping up onto the bar.

"You mean that you didn't take them?" The barmaid asked confusedly.

"Wait. They're all gone?! That was over a million jewels worth a reward money!" The master cried. "Maybe even two million! The money from those jobs was going to pay for the damages the strongest team caused on their last mission!" The master sobbed.

"They must be around here somewhere." Mira said, patting the old man's back. It was at that moment that a frantic Ultear and worried looking Meredy entered the guild.

"Have either of you seen Jellal? Is he on a job?" Ultear demanded, walking over to the counter.

"No. All of our job requests have mysteriously disappeared. Why? Is he missing?" Mira asked worriedly.

"He came home and locked himself in his room two days ago after coming home from work. We didn't see him yesterday because we thought he was still sulking that Erza was away, but when we finally went into his room this morning, he wasn't there!"

"I'm going to kill him." Ultear swore.

"Sorry, but I already have dibs." Laxus glowered, walking over to the group and cracking his knuckles as he spoke. "I swear that once I find that idiot-"

"Oh Meredy, Ultear! This is where you two were!"

Everyone whipped around to see Jellal striding into the guild, a proud look upon his face.

"WHERE ON EARTHLAND HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Ultear roared, storming up to the man and yanking him down by the collar of his jacket. "Leaving with no note? Not even a word to Meredy or me before disappearing off the face of Fiori for a few days! We were worried sick because we thought you were first starving yourself in your room and then back on the lam or something stupid along those lines!" The time mage fumed. "Well?! Where have you been?!"

"I was just on a few small missions." Jellal shrugged, taking Ultear's hand in his and gently prying her fingers from the front of his coat so he could stand up straight. "And I feel a lot better now." He added with a calm smile.

"And just how many is a few?" Meredy asked.

"Well. . . all of them," he admitted uneasily, "but I completed them!" He countered.

"Jellal, people usually come to get me to sign off when they take a job. . . or however many you ended up taking in the end." Mira explained, chuckling at his antic.

"Sorry. I wanted it to be a surprise." Jellal apologized.

"How did you even complete them so fast?" Laxus asked dryly. "Not even _I'm_ that There is no possible way that you alone could ha-" Laxus stopped mid sentence. On cue three more carbon copies of Jellal filed into the guild, lugging eight giant bags between them.

"How many of you _are there_?" Laxus sighed exasperatedly. At his words the other three disappeared, dropping their jewel-filled bags in the center of the guild and leaving the one and only Jellal standing before them.

"Meteor combined with thought projection." He smirked cleverly. "It barely took me over a day, but I needed the rest of the time to get my energy back. This is all the reward jewels from the missions, though I kept the tips I made to help pay for the apartment." Jellal stated clearly. " Though I guess I had to pay for the bags as well, so that came out of it."

"Tips aren't going to pay our rent." Ultear sighed. "How much did you make in "tips" anyways?"

"I made enough from the "tips" to pay for the apartment through the next year. Not just my portion. The _entire_ apartment, for the _entire_ year, so now the three of us can spend our money on other things and won't have to worry so much for a while." Jellal beamed proudly. Ultear and Meredy were dumb struck.

"You can't be serious." Meredy disagreed. "Jellal this is. . ."

"Also, I was going to give the all the official reward money to the guild." He added.

"WHAT?!"

Everyone who was left in the guild and who had heard turned towards him in disbelief. Makarov looked to be on the verge of tears, muttering something about finally being able to pay off all of the debts of "his damn brats."

"When you say all the reward money, you mean what's left after paying for all the stuff you broke right?" Makarov clarified. "So what are the damages this time, boy?"

"Well, I broke a fountain," began, scratching the back of his head, "but that was actually the job I was paid to do because the owner was to lazy to hire a proper construction crew to destroy it. Aside from that, I didn't actually break anything this time." Jellal admitted.

"You're joking, right? You brought in the _full_ reward money? And you're giving it _all_ to the guild?" Makarov asked disbelievingly. "Why did you do all of this?!"

"Two reasons." Jellal responded seriously. "Firstly, I found out what you did for me, us. The petition." Jellal smiled. "Let this be my thanks to you. And secondly, I was just really bored with Erza being gone. It's not that I don't love sitting and sipping tea with an old lady all day, but that is also something I will have plenty of time to do when I'm older." He shrugged.

"Are you sure that it's just not Erza who you only want to sit, drink tea, and be old with?" Ultear chuckled, trying to provoke the man into blushing furiously.

"I'm not denying that sitting and drinking tea and being old with Erza would be a bad thing. . ."

"Violent, unpredictable, and extremely powerful: yep, you and Erza are perfect for each other." Laxus sighed, rolling his eyes. "And remember: propose, end of month, fifteen thousand jewels. You'll have plenty of time to grow old with Erza after that."

Jellal managed through the rest of the week without too much trouble. He still missed Erza terribly, but was be coming much more accustomed to the space. Not to mention taking his frustration out on a couple of gangs of bandits for jobs also helped him to manage his anxiety. Even though Oma no longer needed him to come over and move things, he still stopped by a couple of times to have tea with the old woman. On one occasion Lahar was there, but much to his surprise the council member had been the one to invite him to stay for tea. Those days he also took a few more smaller jobs, ones that he would certainly complete in time for the rune knight's visit. That too came and went, the former members of Crime Sorciere passing Lahar's inspection with flying colors.

On the day that Erza's one week estimate had passed Jellal had a slight relapse into his frantic anxiety, but the rest of the guild members helped him to deal with it. Their first plan of trying to talk him out of worrying had failed, so Laxus moved on to his plan two, which was to forcibly beat the worry out of his friend. Surprisingly, it worked. The fight seemed to be a good way of distracting Jellal and it forced him to work his muscles. The dual soon turned into a guild-wide event: an every man against Jellal battle royale. Only Ultear, Meredy and a few other guild members refused to participate, taking refuge behind the bar, but in the end almost everyone who was back from their missions already became involved. It took the combined efforts of Laxus and Mira to even daze Jellal and it wasn't until Makarov decided to enter the fight that they were finally able to take the riled heavenly body mage out of the match.

Still, he felt much better afterwards.

And it was discovered how invaluable Ultear's time magic was, being able to restore everything in the guild that had been broken back to its previous glory within only a few seconds.

Still, the day couldn't come quick enough for Jellal when Erza would be back.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Because last chapter was just a little bit of a downer. . . *aggressively throws another fluffy chapter into the mix*

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail

Jellal managed through the rest of the week without too much trouble. He still missed Erza terribly, but was be coming much more accustomed to the space. Not to mention taking his frustration out on a couple of gangs of bandits for jobs also helped him to manage his anxiety. Even though Oma no longer needed him to come over and move things, he still stopped by a couple of times to have tea with the old woman. On one occasion Lahar was there, but much to his surprise the council member had been the one to invite him to stay for tea. Those days he also took a few more smaller jobs, ones that he would certainly complete in time for the rune knight's visit. That too came and went, the former members of Crime Sorciere passing Lahar's inspection with flying colors.

On the day that Erza's one week estimate had passed Jellal had a slight relapse into his frantic anxiety, but the rest of the guild members helped him to deal with it. Their first plan of trying to talk him out of worrying had failed, so Laxus moved on to his plan two, which was to forcibly beat the worry out of his friend. Surprisingly, it worked. The fight seemed to be a good way of distracting Jellal and it forced him to work his muscles. The dual soon turned into a guild-wide event: an every man against Jellal battle royale. Only Ultear, Meredy and a few other guild members refused to participate, taking refuge behind the bar, but in the end almost everyone who was back from their missions already became involved. It took the combined efforts of Laxus and Mira to even daze Jellal and it wasn't until Makarov decided to enter the fight that they were finally able to take the riled heavenly body mage out of the match.

Still, he felt much better afterwards.

And it was discovered how invaluable Ultear's time magic was, being able to restore everything in the guild that had been broken back to its previous glory within only a few seconds.

Still, the day couldn't come quick enough for Jellal when Erza would be back.

By the ninth day, however, fighting was no longer fulfilling Jellal's needs. He kept of with them because they helped and because Laxus seemed to like having someone as strong as, if not stronger then, himself to fight. It wasn't until news came detailing how a large rainstorm had caused some of the train tracks to be buried in mud and that no one had been injured that Jellal finally relaxed a bit, understanding that weather was the likely cause of Erza's late return. He had also resolved that if Erza was not back by the fourteenth day without any more news that he was going to go out looking for her.

Finally the afternoon of the eleventh day came and he felt it.

He felt her.

Felt her like he had felt her at Tenrou Island.

Felt her like he had felt her during the dragon festival.

Only, much to his relief, this time there was no sense of life-threatening urgency.

This time there was only Erza.

Jellal, who had currently been participating in yet another guild fight, ripped himself free from the hold Laxus currently had on him and charged from the guild, leaving many of the other confused by his sudden slight. Not everyone was clueless, however.

"So she's finally back." Laxus smirked.

Jellal flew out the door of the guild and started off at an insane sprint through the city streets. He had no idea where he was going as somehow he seemed to be running on instinct and not thinking things through with his brain anymore. He would have used meteor, but to his frustration it was too crowded for him to use at the moment. His feet ended up leading him to the South Gate Park and there he saw her, scarlet hair fluttering behind her in the wind. Erza was just walking through the city gate at this point as she caught sight of him her eyes lit up. She started to run to meet him.

When the two collided, Jellal picked Erza up and swung her around, so heart bursting at the fact that she was back. After a moment he set her back down on the ground, but he didn't dare to let her go. Neither of them said anything because they already knew what the other was thinking.

After a few minutes Jellal pulled back ever so slightly, just to inspect whether or not the woman in his arms was injured or not. To his great relief, she wasn't, but he could see weariness etched into her face from her long days of travel. She looked like she was about to fall asleep on her feet even though it was still a few hours until it would get dark out.

"You look tired. We should probably get you home." He mumbled, trying to coax Erza to begin moving a bit.

"Erza? Are you going to let me go?" Jellal asked, surprised when she made no indication of moving in the slightest.

"No." She mumbled sleepily. "I have a week's worth of hugging you to make up for." She stated childishly. Jellal chuckled at this and Erza was happy to feel the familiar hum of his chest.

He drew his head up to look down on her, a hidden look in his eyes. The next thing she knew, Erza felt her stomach drop away as Jellal hooked one arm behind her knees and the other around her back, lifting her gently and effortlessly into his grasp.

"What are you doing?" She gasped, clutching at the front of his shirt for support.

"Carrying you to your room." He replied seriously.

"I canstill walk, you know." She huffed sleepily. Jellal fought off the urge to chuckle again, as it was obvious that the woman was in no fit shape to be doing much of anything until she got some rest. He made a mental note to question her later if she had pushed herself to hard in order to come home quickly for his sake. If that where the case, which he suspected it might be, then he would feel extremely guilty. But for now he chose to push his own personal grievances aside.

"Ah! But you said that you didn't want to let me go." He smiled down at her. "And have no intention of letting you go just yet either." One look into his eyes and Erza's pride was broken completely. She simply wrapped her arms around his neck in an indication of consent, allowing Jellal to carry her. Eager on getting her home as soon as possible for some much-needed rest, Jellal decided to use meteor to navigate over the city and all the ways to Fairy Hills. He landed skillfully on her balcony and pushed on the door to her room. Luckily, it was unlocked. Jellal moved across the room to Erza's bed and pulled the covers back before setting her down gently. He next moved to slip her shoes off for her before pulling the covers back up to her chin. He was about to turn and leave her to rest when he hand shot up, catching his.

"Stay with me?" She asked timidly.

Jellal looked at her for a minute. He carefully slid his hand from hers before walking around to the other side of the bed, kicking his boots off and slipping under the covers. Erza immediately moved closer to him on the mattress and snuggled up against his warm body. Jellal, in turn, wrapped his arms around her and pulled her even closer.

"I missed you so much." He murmured.

"I missed too." She sighed sleepily.

And with that the two mages drifted off to sleep in each other's arms. Erza was in desperate need of sleep after her long trip and Jellal was in need of a little bit from all of the restless nights he had spent awaiting her return. Jellal woke up for a little bit in the evening, but Erza was still snoozing. He had half the mind to get up and go down to the guild for some food or even to her kitchen, but he just couldn't bring himself to be separated from Erza again yet. So instead he chose to watch her peaceful face beside him and count his blessings. Eventually Jellal drifted back off to sleep, Erza's head nestled beneath his as she nuzzled him and burrowed deeper under the covers in her sleep.

When Erza woke up, it was from the best sleep that she had had in twelve nights. She was surprised to find Jellal was already awake, gazing down at her in a way that made her face flush. He leaned forwards and brushed his lips against her forehead.

"Good morning. Sleep well?" He yawned at her, leaning back to stretch his body out as much as he could before rolling back over to her side.

"Good morning to you too." She said, tilting her lips up. "I haven't slept this good in a while! I wish we could just stay in bed all day."

"We _could_ just stay here all day." Jellal suggested sleepily, already snuggling back under the covers.

Erza scoffed at this and tried to rouse the blue haired mage beside her by poking his shoulder. When that didn't work, she resorted to other measures.

"Oof!"

Jellal cracked his eyes open in time to see Erza's feet disappear from where he had previously been lying a few seconds ago and as she turned around to stare at him from over the bed.

"Whoops! My foot slipped." She chuckled teasingly. It was quickly wiped away as she saw Jellal's face break out into a mischievous smirk. She tried to move away from the edge of the bed, but slipped on the sheets. Jellal lunged forwards, grabbing Erza and pulled her off the bed and into a bear hug.

"Whoops!" He laughed in return, spinning Erza around. Eventually the momentum became too much and he fell backwards, Erza landing safely on top of him. The two were giggling like little kids as they lay on the ground, light beginning to filter in through the window and fall over them. They lay there for a few more seconds before Erza finally got up, freeing Jellal to do the same. They were originally going to eat breakfast in her apartment, but it seemed that Erza had forgotten to buy food because of her trip, so they ended up going down the guild to eat. Many of the other guild members were surprised that Erza was back, seeing as she had not stopped by the previous day. Finally getting their food, they sat down to eat. When Ultear and Meredy entered the guild a bit later, the pair immediately made a beeline for where the couple was sitting.

"There you are! We were worried when you didn't come home again that you had gone on another little. . . _adventure_ without telling anyone." Meredy called to Jellal.

"You went on an adventure?" Erza asked, sounding surprised by the fact.

"It was no big deal. I promise to tell you about it a bit later." Jellal smiled at her, slightly embarrassed as he remembered how rashly he had acted over the previous week and a half.

"We also found out that your boy here is quite the angry brawler." Ultear chuckled, patting Jellal on the back.

"You started a fight?" Erza questioned dangerously, raising an eyebrow.

Jellal looked down nervously, avoiding eye contact. "I may have been the instigator of and or participated in one or two," he mumbled shamefully. "But to be fair, Laxus was the one who suggested fighting as an idea to help me cope! And it worked pretty well, too!" Jellal added hastily.

He was not surprised at all when she hit him lightly across the back of the head. What he did not expect was the words that came out of her mouth next.

"So did you kick his ass?"

Jellal's head shot up in surprise. Erza was staring at him expectantly, waiting for his answer.

"Jelly had him _and _Mira on the ropes until Master Makarov stepped in to fight." Meredy piped up, seeing that Jellal was having trouble forming any coherent thoughts at the moment.

Jellal was even more surprised when Erza just nodded, flashing him a proud smile before turning back to the plate of food in front of her.

After eating both he and Erza took their plates back to Mira. He had offered to take her dishes for her, but she declined, saying that she wanted to talk with Mira for a bit about something. After returning his plate to the bar, Jellal wandered a little ways away, watching what was going on around the guild. He knew that Erza would probably have a meeting with the Master later that would take up a fair portion of her day and so he let his mind wander with what he was going to do. A small job or something along those lines seemed most appealing to him.

Jellal considering leaving the guild to go home and prepare for a job and was about to walk off when he felt something tugging on his pants leg. He looked down, curious. It was much to his surprise to find little Asuka looking up at him.

"You're Jellal right?" the young girl asked.

The man in question nodded slowly, unsure of where this was going. He knew that the little girl was supposed to be very sweet, but in all honesty he was embarrassed to admit that he just did not know how to act around children since he had never really gotten the chance to spent too much time around them with how his life had been.

"Will you pick me up? You're really tall and I want to know what it's like!" Asuka smiled up at him, holding her arms out.

Jellal cast a quick glance at Erza, who was still caught in a conversation, unsure of what exactly to do. She caught his eye, only smiling and giving him a reassuring nod. Slightly hesitantly, he turned back to Asuka and smiled. Taking her up from under each arm, he carefully lifted her up to his shoulder and set her down there. She clutched on to his head, one show on either side of his neck.

"Wow! You can see so far form here!" Asuka beamed excitedly. "You get this view all the time?"

Jellal chuckled lightly by the fact of how amazed she was, growing a tiny bit more relaxed.

"Yeah. It is pretty cool, isn't it?" He responded.

"If I were this tall then I would have no problem finding where Mama and Papa hide the cookie jar!" Asuka pouted.

"Well I don't know anything about where that is, but we could go ask Mira for cookies." He suggested.

"You're the best Jellal!" Asuka grinned as the heavenly body trudged over to the bar.

"Hi Jellal! Hi Asuka! What can I get for you?" Mira asked as she put a short pause on her conversation with Erza.

"Can we get two cookies, please Mira? If you're not too busy and if it's alright with Erza." Jellal asked, Asuka clapping in excitement. Erza nodded that it was fine.

"I'm sure I can find a couple in the kitchen." The barmaid chuckled, walking off to go see.

"Cookies this early in the morning?" The requip mage asked, quirking an eyebrow at him.

"You eat cake this early in the morning." Jellal countered slyly.

"Pleeasse Erza! Can we please have cookies?" Asuka begged.

"Pleeasse Erza~!" Jellal grinned, joining the small child on his head and giving the knight a tag team of their best pleading faces.

She finally gave her best sigh of annoyance, trying to conceal her laughter at how out of character and silly Jellal was acting. _Feared great dark wizard? Pft! Yeah, right!_

"Fine! If you want to spoil your breakfast, then go on ahead!"

"Thanks Erza!" Asuka beamed.  
Jellal just grinned at her in response, a light flush dusting his face.

Mirajane returned about a minute later, two chocolate chip cookies in hand. She handed one to Asuka and the other to Jellal, the two thanking Mira before wandering back off into the guild.

Somehow the hours passed much quicker in the day for Jellal than they usually did. He was slightly ashamed to say that the many rounds of hide-and-seek and tag that he had ended up participating in had worn him down more than he would care to admit. Among running around the guild, he was also roped into coloring with Asuka and reading to her, not that he minded much at all. It was kind of relaxing for him. He also made a mental note to visit the guild library again, preferably on a rainy day or when it was snowy and frozen outside. He was not only pleased by the large selection of books and the cozy armchairs housed there, but also admired the architecture of the place (another nerdy pastime of his.) And so that was how he spent his day. And it was well spent indeed. Both he and Asuka were worn out by the time Bisca and Alzack came to collect her from him.

"Will you take me to the aquarium sometime Jellal?" Asuka asked hopefully.

"Sure! So long as it's ok with your parents, I'd love to go to the aquarium with you." He smiled back.

"You're the best Jellal!" the small girl reiterated, rushing forwards to hug his neck once more before returning to her parents' sides. Jellal smiled and waved as the family walked off.

"You're pretty good with kids."

Jellal stood up and turned around to see Erza standing behind him. She had been watching as he interacted with Asuka, a fresh smile on her face as she saw how happy he was to please the child.

"Really?" He asked, slightly stunned by the comment because in all honesty he had had no idea what to do when it came to children. "I dunno. I guess that just like me for whatever reason." He shrugged.

"So would you ever. . . want kids?" Erza asked offhandedly, blushing ever so slightly.

"I'd probably like a few someday." He mentioned nonchalantly, feeling as he blushed slightly as well as he realized the implications behind his words. "Not that I want any right now. Well, it's not that I don't want any right now, I'm just not feeling too pressured to-"

It was Erza's turn to cut him off by laughing at how flustered he had made himself. He scowled, trying to retain an air of dignity, but it only made Erza's laughing fit worse.

"Hey lover boy! Meredy and I want to know whether or not you'll be coming home tonight or if we're going to have the joy of cleaning up all those dishes again by ourselves." Ultear demanded, walking over to the two.

"Yeah, I'll meet you two at home in just a little bit." Jellal grumbled, turning away to try and hide his blush from the other woman. Ultear turned and walked to the guild doors, pausing at the door to turn back.

"Erza, would you please make sure that he gets home on time? _I trust you can handle him_." She smirked.

That shut Erza's laughing up really fast as her face quickly turned to match her hair. And with that, Ultear left the guild, leaving Erza a stuttering mess.

It took Jellal a few minutes to calm her down, though he was also abashed himself. But after that, Erza was all business once again.

"You should probably get home. I can only imagine what Ultear would do to you when she's mad." Erza commented, walking out of the guild with Jellal.

"Yeah." He chuckled, scratching the back of his head. "She has her ways of getting even and I'm not fond of being on her bad side." He reminisced.

For Jellal, the walk to his shared apartment went all too fast. And soon enough after saying goodbyes he was watching Erza walk back down the street in the opposite direction, heading for her home in Fairy Hills. He had a question that had been burning on his mind for a while, but he hadn't really gotten a chance to ask it to her up until now.

"Hey! Erza!"

She turned back to him, looking at him questioningly.

"Do you want to go on a job together?" He asked hopefully.

"I think I'd like that." She smiled.

A/N: Quick apology, because this ending kinda sucked a little. I literally spent more time on the last 300 words than the rest of the story combined. So yeah, my bad.


End file.
